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| 2016 Lanza Family Petite Sirah + Chocolate |
This particular review is the second opportunity that I have had to review one of a few wines that I brought back from my recent trip to the Napa Valley a couple of weeks ago. Today I am reviewing the 2016 Lanza Family Petite Sirah wine. This wine was graciously given to me to review by Michelle Alameda who is the Tasting Room Manager at Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards (
https://www.woodenvalley.com/home-3/). When she handed me this wine I was really impressed with the confidence she exuded as she gave it to me. I remember thinking that this must be some wine I was holding in my hands for her to be so confident. The Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards are located in the Suisun Valley AVA of Fairfield, California. By the way, as a side note I want to tell you that Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards is also the very first winery that I ever went to which was way back in around 1999 and certainly way before The Desert Wine Guy was even a thought. I thought it would be super cool to go back and see what was going on there today as 1999 was also the first and last time I visited the Napa Valley as well. The Winery looks like it hasn't changed in all these years and I was kind of surprised but happy to see that.
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| Welcome To Wooden Valley Winery |
The one thing I did notice that had unfortunately changed was that the bordering property used to be a Pear Orchard that had the best pears and that was sadly gone. Let's learn a little more about the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyard now. The first thing that I want to mention is that the Tasting Fee at the winery is $15 which is certainly within every ones budget and also in keeping with The Desert Wine Guys "wines for the Middle Class" founding principals. Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards was originally founded back in 1933 by Salvador Brea who was a friend of Mario (Lanza). In 1944 Mario moved his family from Oakland, California and became partners with Salvador at the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards. In 1955 Mario became sole owner of the winery with the understanding that the wineries name remain the same. As families do, this one grew as well and Mario's oldest Grandson is now the Winemaker for the family. Today the Lanza Family grows around 300 Acres of Vineyards.
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| Wooden Valley Tasting Room |
So, now we move onto the wine up for review and see what it is all about and if Michelle's confidence is well founded. The wine won a Silver Medal at the SF Chronicle Wine competition which I am sure the family was very proud of. The wine retails for $45 at the winery and is the only place unfortunately that it is available. The wine sat in American Oak for 16 months and is a blend of 75% Petite Sirah and
25% Cabernet Sauvignon. By the way, there is a discrepancy as to the Alcohol
percentage of this wine with the wineries product page (
https://www.woodenvalley.com/product/2016-lanza-family-petite-sirah/) claiming 14.8% and the bottle itself
saying 15.1%. According to their Website, all of their wines are Estate Wines which means the Lanza Family either owns the Vineyards or controls the Vineyards which the grapes for this wine came from. Let's move on to what you all should know by now is something that I think is a super important aspect to any wine in general and that is the label (initial presentation).
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| Lanza family |
Looking at the front label in general it is surprising how fairly plain it is, it doesn't say much of anything including what Varietal the wine is nor does it state the Vintage, both of these omissions I find to be weird. If I'm at the store and looking for a particular Varietal I would (unfortunately by the way) just skip over this wine as I might not feel like picking up the bottle to do the research of simply what varietal the wine is. That's is too much commitment for me at that point. The back label is completely different however and displays the Varietal as well as the Vintage. To me the back label is impressive and not only because it gives the information that the Consumer wants or needs to make a decision to purchase or not purchase the wine but because of the Fonts, the color of those Fonts as well as the other information it gives out.
Moving ahead now onto the Bouquet of the wine I will tell you that a Black Peppercorn spice incredibly leaps right out of the glass at you and I'm loving it. There is a moderate yet certainly sufficient note of Leather which drifts up from the glass into my nose here as well and together I am expecting at least a bit of complexity to this wine on the palate. How about the impression of a super juicy cherry type note which rushes straight to the nose and which also seems to just insist on making it's presence known? On top of all this wonderful business is a semi rich note of Cocoa as well which I find fits in absolutely perfectly along with the other notes. Topping off the nose of this wine and I would indeed be remiss for not mentioning it is a note of nice Jam? All of these notes imply that the wine is going to be a fruit packed wine on the Palate and all I can say at this point is.......yummy.
So let's now take an actual look at this wine because when I poured it in my glass I was rather surprised. A dark red, and I do mean a dark red is laid out before me in my glass. Sitting here staring at it I am in awe. It appears as if this wine is not showing any sign of visually mellowing or color softening at least as far as its visual presentation goes. Holy cow wine lovers, this wine is just appearing super confident in its appearance that is for sure. This is a wine which stains the fingers tips should you stick one in it or the edges of the lips when the wine comes in contact with them. The bottom line here so far between the Bouquet and the glass presentation is that this appears to be a wine that takes itself very seriously so far.
Well here we are, onto the Palate. Folks, we need to talk. I cheated. Yes, I have already tasted the wine as I could not stand the temptation any longer. After having judged this wine on its Bouquet and its visual
appearance I was just dying to get to taste it right away and since I am
the boss (where is Mrs. Desert Wine Girl) I did :) My rating is......is.....well.... patience folks, patience is after all a virtue. My problem which I am definitely having now is where do I begin? This is a wine that displays such darkish and Black Fruit depth all around that I find it hard to start at one particular place. Let's go ahead and pick up at the front and center note of Jam. Don't get scared wine lovers as yes, there is certainly a fairly moderate Jammy note to this wine but the first thing that you should know is that it is much more then that and besides the jamminess is truly welcome here and after all, it is a Petite Sirah and also has other wonderful notes which you will see are only used to contribute to this wines overall awesomeness. Let's proceed, shall we? Baked Blueberry folks, have I gotten your attention now? A very serious and up front Baked Blueberry just comes barreling through onto the
Palate and simply envelopes it. Give me a second please as I take this note in and enjoy it.
Okay, I'm back now and all I can say about the note is WOW! I want to talk about a super juicy Plum note which is on the Palate as well and which also is front and center. Together these two notes are massively intense for sure and envelope the Palate in that sense of jamminess that I got on the Nose. "Elegance", the Wooden Valley Winery & Vineyards website describes this wine as having "elegance" and that is indeed the perfect word to be used here. How you may ask can you have a wine which brings with it such a sense of Jamminess, have elegance at the same time? Well, there is no acidity to the wine which I believe might otherwise might have altered this wine and altered as well the presentation of its jamminess. The jamminess that I am speaking of is not some sugar packed, covering up bad notes jamminess, no this note is there for a reason and is fulfilling that reason perfectly. This is perhaps a little bit of how the "elegance" is possible. I don't know about you but I believe that the varietal itself dictates that the following note is present Yes indeed, there is a Black Peppercorn note that translates incredibly over and onto the Palate and yes, it is fairly pronounced. From the opening of the wine all
the way through to the Finish and beyond (Toy Story anyone) the Black Peppercorn note makes itself known on the palate and causes a sort of break or a cut of the jamminess note, perfectly done. Tannins, let's talk for a minute. Being honest as always I will tell you that there isn't really much of anything to talk about concerning that note here but I did detect just a bit of Tannins and actually just enough to where they are noted but
nothing that would alter or throw off the Palate or might even perhaps bother those of you who don't
care for that aspect of a red wine. I would not say that Tannins in any way greatly shape this wine. I need to talk now about what really makes this wine what it is and that that big note of jamminess or ripe, black fruit fruit richness. For those of you who follow me on Social Media what I about to say you already know but for new readers I want to tell you that I absolutely detest a jammy Cabernet Sauvignon and so you would think that I would really dislike this particular wine however the opposite is actually true and might be for you as well. Yes, there is a definite richness to this wine but not to the extent that
someone (like me) who dislikes Jammy or Fruit Forward wines would be put
off. Perhaps I simply like the wine because of how the individual notes play off of one another, perhaps it's because the note actually it belongs here and as I said is not a cover up for bad wine or off tasting notes, I just don't know. When I say that this wine is different, I mean it.
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| Ron Lanza - Wooden Valley Owner |
I need to discuss warm baking spices before I go because this wine is simply overflowing with that note as well. If you just sip this wine (as you should) and do a proper tasting yourself you
will be blown away when the wine thrusts forward with the notes of
baking spices. A note of smoothness mixed with smoke is presented here as these two notes come together and....yeah, get the wine. Please allow me to add one more note here and that is of a black fruit, Bing Cherry that is exposed on the Palate and along with the
baked Blueberry presented earlier is a big part of what makes this wine so great.
This "dark fruit" by the way is largely what I believe a Petite Sirah is all about.
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| Grapes Hanging at The Wooden valley Vineyard |
Towards the end of this review I shared a couple of sips of the wine along with a few bites of the Chocolate in the picture above with a couple of family members and I have to tell you that we were all in love with the pairing. My suggestion is to get the Chocolate and two bottles of the wine as one goes in the Cellar of course.This wine does indeed fit the bill for the Varietal and is an excellent representative of it as well. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 93 points, I really enjoyed it.
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Pouring the wine into my glass it appeared almost clear in color but it did however have a slight golden tinge to it. Bringing the wine to my nose it exhibited notes of Lemongrass as well as Grapefruit Zest. Adding to these notes is also a fairly light yet effective note of Green Apple. I also wish to tell you that overall this wine is showing off a fairly nice Bouquet here guys and I believe that it brings along with it the promise at least of a bright, slightly acidic but yet fruity Palate. I am hoping that the Palate can indeed deliver on this promise because if it can this should be a rather nice wine.
