Small Lot Petite Sirah

Insane Value

I am always on the hunt for great big Cali reds that offer great value and the big reds coming out of McCay Cellars from Lodi are the most exciting value reds I have discovered this year. Check out their Zin as well. This marvelously rich yet breathtakingly supple old vine Petite Sirah is selling at the winery for $26. We can offer it at $16.99. This is a big red wine lovers dream at the price. If you don’t know Petite Sirah, this is your opportunity, nothing to do with Shiraz or Syrah. The 2010 McCay Cellars Petite Sirah is full bodied, brimming with fruit, awesome concentration and cashmere smooth. Priced right, 90pts and ready to go.

What are the odds of rolling dice and coming up with back-to-back #7’s? Well according to those folks in Las Vegas, it’s 36 to 1! But for us at Grapeswine, it simply came with the very second roll, beating all bettor’s odds!. As luck would have it, we’ve acquired another winner from MacCay Cellars; and from the very same 2010 vintage, one that continuously receives huge press – especially for reds.

Nestled between the San Francisco Bay and the Sierra Nevada Mountains lies Lodi, a wine region who’s Mediterranean-like climate of warm days soothed by delta breezes, coupled with diverse soils, grows some of the California’s best red varietals. By birth, McCay Cellars has been a small boutique winery that takes pride in producing Lodi’s best wines. Equally so, they produce the highest quality varietals in small case lots (typically less than three hundred cases per lot)! Michael McCay (pictured) had been making wine since 1994, and with 20 harvests of experience, his closest family and friends were consistent in their encouragement that he start selling his wine under his own label (that milestone happened in 2007). So with great consideration, he began producing wines that were handcrafted from start to finish. Ergo, from the field to the bottle, Michael monitors everything in detail to ensure that his wines are of the finest quality. McCay professes that “Lodi is perfect for Rhone varietals, especially for my own Old-World style of winemaking.”

Petite Sirah (known as Durif in France) has been traced to the France’s Rhône Valley wine producing region. However, from there it made its long journey to California – now its “true home” – winding up in pockets of Sonoma, Napa, and in Lodi where old vines stand in very small numbers. The important thing, to note is the kind of wines that these ancient, gnarly trunked, largely dry-farmed, head pruned bushes produce: the essence-of-blueberry, Petite Sirahs, all wrapped up in wonderfully round, smooth tannins. McCay Cellars’ Petite Sirah encompasses all of this and at a price that is hard to ignore!

Winemaker’s notes:

“Grown in Lodi Sandy Loam soil with the traditional east/west planting of rows. This vineyard is located in the North/East corner of the Lodi/AVA. I have been farming this field for the past 15 years, which has given me the chance to understand the nuances of this particular field. This vineyard is typically grown to 4.5 tons per acre. This is the only vineyard we harvest fruit from on a trellis (vertical). Up front fruit profile, grown in sandy loam soil with the traditional east/west planting of rows, helps give this vintage the perfect chance for the fruit to ripen in the late summer sun. Pruned with six to eight spurs per side, great time and effort have been spent to produce this vintage. Notes of Blackberry, Cherry and Prune gives this vintage a fruitful forward nose.” – Michael McCay

Reviews:

“This juicy and fruity wine is a blend of just slightly more than half Zinfandel, the rest Petite Sirah. It’s full of ripe black and red fruit, with structured tannins that teeter on the edge of being overwhelming—until the finish gives exactly the right hit of spice.” — 90 pts. Viginia Boone / Wine Enthusiast (12/1/2012).

“This is the way we like our Petit Sirah. Full bodied. Deep rich teeth staining purple color. Big Boysenberry nose. Some judicious oak with serious ripe blue fruit. Just enough tannin and acid to keep things in balance. Some graphite and sharp blue fruit on the finish. Delightful.” –CellarTracker (01/25/2014).