Depard-mon-dieu!

I recently (1/19) drank the Girard 2005 Petite Sirah, from Napa Valley. One of the sales RepS from the winery recently participated (with great customer service) in the Thanksgiving Week Windsor Sonoma offering on wine.woot.

While my own personal preference within PS is for full-bodied PS with massive tannins, lots blueberry-to-blackberry fruit, good acidity and structure with as little sugar as possible, I appreciate all PS for the wonder it is, so long as it meets a pretty low threshold of enjoyability.

This one was the color of Ocean Spray Cran-Blueberry, which suggested good things to me. As usual, this PS needs to breathe quite a bit, so decanting is highly recommended. The nose, though tight upon opening and pouring, opened up nicely to reveal flavors and scents of blackberries, blueberries, and red currant/cassis, with some minerals and hints of allspice at the back end. The tannins were PleaSantly soft, and the wine had good acidity. In the mouth, it was fairly thick, not jammy or syrupy and very smooth and refined, definitely not on the rustic end of the spectrum.

This was quite enjoyable. Rather than a big "cult PS" (ala Turley, Foley, or Biale), this is the sort of wine to transition those who are used to big, fruity, tannic Cabernet into PS. It would pair better with a steak or buffalo fillet than it would with gamier meats, but depending on your palate, may also be approachable without food.