#durif

An interesting blend–and one I’m not angry about at all. Ridiculous black staining purple, a nose clean and unslutty, with smoky meat and light vegetal plastered heavy over dense black cherry and candied plum. It FEELS like PS and TASTES like PS, but there’s a peppery bit of anger residing inside turning everything up to 11. A fairly low-intervention and moderate-alcohol winery in Paso…

This is some black-ass purple grainy shit, man. Completely impenetrable in the glass, a nose slow and dull in showing any sort of beauty–decanted heavily. Nice to see “Durif” on a label outside Wagner-Suisun–a true nod to the pre-historic edges of wine-production. Concentrated leathery bouquet gradually exposes itself, but mono-characteristic and flat. You can SMELL the vitality, but it doesn’t…

The purple florescent glow of ridiculously-staining Mendo PS in unmistakable. The heady floral velvet is trademark, and the raspy, grating mineralific dust classic in depth and character. Glycerine body soothes all ills while pungent spice inflames receptors with aplomb. This is a stupidly-delicious wine–I don’t even need to taste it. Fruit explodes into cat’s-tongue texture all over the palate.…

Petite Sirah is such a funny grape. Instilling vague reactions of “Huh?” in many, “Meh… whatever” in others and yet several producers in California dedicating basically their entire production to its honor. My deep affection for this variety goes back several decades to teeth-cutting years with Contra Costa County, Clarksburg, Mendocino and the Sierra Foothills, where it carved an un-healing…

Dull, chubby nose of rotten fruit and dirty motor oil. Pruney-thick in bouquet and impenetrable black maroon to the eye. The minuscule rim shows basically no clear, but not bricking. Flaccid and cloyingly sweet, it is not maderized, but one-dimensional, with any aspiration toward complexity buried behind rubenesque curves. Tasting it puts dry, chalky imprints of varietal-correctness against a…