1998 Mirassou Petite Sirah

[Innkeeper]

1998 Mirassou, Harvest Reserve, Petite Sirah, Central Coast ($16 The Vineyard). Tasted this one a year ago at a local wine store. The distributor hosting the tasting hyped it bigtime. It was a limited bottling, "lovingly dedicated to our father and grandfather Edmund Mirassou" (1918 - 1996).

Mirassou was one of the first California wineries we fell in love with over 35 years ago. All the above was on my mind when we tasted it, and thought it was pretty good, but needed a little more time. So, we bought a bottle. Today I was reorganizing our modest wine cellar, and came across it again. Looked at it, and figured it was not one the normal PS's that cross our path that need eight years or so in the rack. So, what to do. It was described as "ageworthy" on the back label. We were planning grillpanned sirlin steak, baked sweet potato, and green beans almondine for dinner, and thought what the heck!

To be safe, I decanted it two and half hours before dinner. Hit it on the button! There were ripe plums on the nose, and powerful peppery spice and smooth tannin across the palate, and a ring-a-ling finish. We both loved it. Wish we had more.