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The story of Petite Sirah is a short one. Unlike the noble grape varieties
in the world, we can trace the origin of this grape, with a positive degree of
certainty, back to the 1880’s in France. There a grape breeder at the
University of Montpellier by the name of Durif, crossbred two distinctly
different grape varieties. These two varieties were Syrah and Peloursin.
The latter of the two grapes in this case was a wine grape with a very
limited value in Rhone, France, while of course Syrah, a.k.a. “Shiraz”, has
become a world phenomenon.
At first this grape variety became known as “Durif” after the gentleman
that discovered or created I should say, the grape variety. You can still
find it under that name in France, but its importance has been greatly
reduced and it is very hard to find wines made from the grape anywhere in
France and especially in Rhone, where it was born. We all know that the
wine grape, Syrah, thrives and excels in Rhone like no other, but the
reason that Petite Sirah didn’t cut the mustard, so to speak, in Rhone is
because of its propensity to develop what is known as “grey rot”. The hot
and humid weather conditions in the Rhone Valley brought about this grey
rot on many occasions in Petite Sirah grapes and winemakers in Rhone
became impatient with the variety in general. Thus it was booted out of
Rhone in favor of more stable varieties.
It finally found a home where it is quite welcome, but ironically, it wasn’t
France or the rest of the Old World countries for that matter. It found its
new home in California where at one point in time, it was one of the most
common grape varieties planted in California. The problem was, people
thought they were planting Syrah and not Petite Sirah. Call it a case of
mistaken identity if you will.
Now I can see how one might get confused between the two wines, after
all, they do taste fairly similar, but what I can’t figure out is how the
people growing these Petite Sirah vines got confused. They are both black
grapes, I’ll give them that, but perhaps one reason the name “Petite” was
given to this grape is that it is distinctly smaller than Syrah grapes. How
could you not notice that? Well they didn’t or most in California didn’t
anyway and they planted it with great regularity. I could only imagine
what those first examples of wines made from were like here. Probably
very rustic and primitive indeed.
Upon having stated that Petite Sirah was at one time one of the most
planted grape varieties in California, I bet you became a bit skeptical that
this could be true. After all, you may have never even heard about this
wine style and didn’t even know it existed. Well interestingly enough, one
thing Petite Sirah had going for it was that it was a great traveler. Its
grapes may be small, but their skins are tough. Back during the
prohibition times in our country, when alcohol was illegal to produce and
consume (like that ever stopped anyone), grape growers in California
could produce large quantities of Petite Sirah to send to the rest of the
states in our country for independent home-winemakers. This is still being
done today, just check out all of the homebrew stores in Dallas and you
will see what I mean. Just because our government said wineries could
not produce wine to distribute to the masses, didn’t mean they couldn’t sell
the grapes to individuals. What those individuals did with the grapes was
their own business. And thus Petite Sirah’s fame and success was born in
our country.
It was short-lived though. I guess many of these winemakers started
discovering what Syrah really looked like because they stopped planting
Petite Sirah and ripped out their vines and began planting them with the
more popular varietals of the day. In fact, by the 60’s, it became almost
all but extinct in California. What saved it was a fad that began to catch
on in our country over Rhone grape varieties. More and more
winemakers were experimenting with Rhone varieties and somehow,
whether by that same mistaken identity or whether by shear curiosity,
Petite Sirah was being planted again.
Now it has never caught on with the majority of the wine-buying public yet
and I believe that is due in part to its unfamiliarity with wine drinkers.
Some people become confused over the name alone and assume it is a
type of Syrah wine. It does have some similarities, but it is also distinctly
different. As far as some of the flavor profiles are concerned, they both
tend to display some degree of earthy types of aromas like leather,
mushrooms, etc… There is also a spicy side to them, although I would say
that Syrah has more of a black pepper spice to it, where as Petite Sirah
has more of a pronounced white pepper flavor to it. The focus in both
varietals is on the darker fruit flavors like blackberry and cassis. This
however is where the similarities began to fade. I’m not saying that Syrah
wines do not contain tannins, because they certainly do. They also make
some of the longest-lived wines in the world in terms of ageability. But
because of Petite Sirah’s small, tough skins, they can make some serious
tooth enamel scraping, tannic monsters with a lot of grit. Upon consuming
a glass of Petite Sirah, look in the mirror and notice how purple your
tongue and teeth are! This wine is dark purple, almost jet-black.
I really think this wine style is a lot of fun to drink. It is certainly anything
but boring. There seem to be more and more California wineries that are
beginning to specialize in Petite Sirah wines. Certainly names like Stags
Leap Winery and Concannon have lead the charge in bringing Petite Sirah
wines to the retail shelves. Petite Sirah fans have even formed a society
called “PS I Love You” and they have regular meetings and events to help
promote Petite Sirah wines.
In some high society circles they say you are defined by the style of wine
you drink. If that is the case, I imagine that the person that drinks Petite
Sirah is an aggressive person that knows what they want in life and enjoys
the challenges they face to get there. Don’t whip this wine out amongst
your White Zinfandel drinking friends, they won’t know what hit them!
Chocked full of black and purple tannins and a flavor that announces its
presence with authority, this wine is certainly not subtle. Like I said, the
grapes may be Petite, but don’t call it small!
Varietal/Wine
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