Wine Blogging Wednesday 47: Brought to You By the Letter ‘S’

Wine Blogging Wednesday #47 falls a little off the beaten path. Erin and Michelle of Grape Juice decided to revisit an idea from a show that probably helped introduce most of us to the alphabet: Sesame Street. So what better letter to choose than S? What a way to liven up Lenn Thompson’s creation that’s getting close to turning four!

So here’s my equation to enter into this theme.      P+S=P.S.       Hmmm, you ask? Well it’s Petite Sirah, which is a cross between Peloursin and Syrah. This particular one is the 2001 Pacific Star Petite Sirah from Mendocino, crafted by Sally Ottoman, with the tagline “Wines born and raised by the Sea.”  BK and I visited Pacific Star back in February when we stayed in Fort Bragg on our Anderson Valley/Mendocino visit. The thing that struck us the most there was the openness to the sea, how it seemed to permeate the winery with the sounds of waves crashing against rocks, the salty air, and the spectacular view.

 I have to admit, I had forgotten about WBW again, and it was just by chance that BK steered us towards this bottle. We were having a dinner version of steak and eggs: the first being grilled tri-tip and the second, a sampler of deviled eggs– some salty and some spicy. Turned out to be quite the pairing and looking at the back label this morning verifies it as a “great alternative to Cab with grilled steaks.”

I actually had to make most of my notes this morning, since last night the only thing I noted was the low alcohol (12.8%!), presence of heavy spice, bright fruit, and how smoothly it went with the food.  This time around, I took notice of the bevy of smells—first, bacon fresh out of the package, graphite, and clove.  Tasting it reminded me of blackberry, blueberry, and Szechuan pepper.  The fruit is still quite prominent, despite its being a 2001, though I’m not sure how we ended up with this older vintage, since the 2005 is what shows up on the Pacific Star website. It was our last visit that day, and though I can’t recall, maybe we just got lucky with tasting a library selection.

So, even though it was last minute, I really enjoyed this Wine Blogging Wednesday and its reminder of my furry little friend, Grover.

Image source: Farley Walker