I just realised that I never explained my scoring system when I switched to this star method a few months ago. Blatantly stolen from Decanter, it’s very easy to understand: */Poor **/Mediocre ***/Good ****/Very good *****/Excellent.
I think Decanter uses two stars to indicate “average” but I prefer “mediocre” as it’s more disparaging. If a wine completely melts my brain with its amazeballsness then ****** is a possibility – but I don’t want to start going down that road. I try not to let my personal taste skew the rating but a little distortion is probably inevitable.
As it happens, I’ve featured two five-star wines (and both under €20) below. Lest anyone think I’m going soft in my old age, I promise to totally flay the next wine here on GoS, as long as it’s not a free sample. To the wines!
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1. Concannon Petite Sirah, Central Coast, California, 2004 -> €14 Bradleys Cork, €18 O’Donovans, €15 Superquinn -> Petite Sirah is found in warmer parts of California and South America where its tannins and deep colour make it a useful blending partner. Syrah and peloursin are its parents and there has been some debate as to whether it’s the same grape as durif. Californian producers, led by Jo Diaz, started promoting the grape in 2002 under the banner “P.S. I Love You”. Excellent!
California’s Central Coast, a large area between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is bisected by the San Andreas Fault and wines from either side of the menacing crack can differ markedly. Surprisingly, summer temperatures are only around the same as in Germany’s Mosel.
One final piece of trivia: Santa Rita Hills AVA is located here but its officially known as “Sta Rita Hills” out of consideration to Chile’s Santa Rita.
Concannon’s petite sirah is rich but dry with perfumed oak, black cherry, vanilla, raspberry compote, and chocolate flavours. Balanced and long. P.S. I loved it. *****
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2. Willunga 100 Grenache, McLaren Vale, South Australia, 2005 -> €15 O’Donovans (imported by Liberty – full list of stockists here. Current vintage “07.) -> I raved over this on Twitter, gushing that it was “even better than D’Arenberg’s” (a meaningless comment as they make so many different grenaches), prompting D’Arenberg itself to ghost in out of nowhere and tweet “Traitor!” at me. They were only joking but I tried to butter them up anyway by posting a link to a video I did of one of their grenaches before. You’ve to be pure wide on that site.
The Willunga is a beaut though. Six years old but still in its prime. Raspberry cola, strawberry, milk chocolate and black pepper. Vibrant and alive, with a real taste of more. *****
nice one Paul, I’ll be popping into O’Donovans to try the Willunga Grenache. I’ll expect a refund if your scoring doesn’t match my tastes!
Article 13.7(c) of GoS’ terms and conditions:
“Where a discrepancy exists between a wine’s qualities as outlined by PK on GoS and its qualities as perceived by a reader, it is held to be self-evident that the veracity of the former outranks that of the latter; and therefore no liability leading on from such a variance may fall on GoS, the relevant wine merchant, or either’s agents”.
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I’m always amazed that no one reads those T&Cs.
Paul,
I found it in Supervalu in Rosslare harbour last summer and took a punt on it – twas lovely.
http://willieswineblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/post-holidays-blues-and-reds.html
Rosslare – now there’s a place I’ve never set foot in. Any sign of your blog coming back on stream, Willie?
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By the way, there were some factual errors in this piece until a few minutes ago (it’s a minefield writing about grape parentage). Then Jo Diaz of “P.S. I Love You” got in touch to school me.
Decanter ( http://www.decanter.com/wine-learning/glossary/grapes/p
) says that syrah and petite sirah are not related. Jo says this is wrong.
(From Jo’s email …)
* It IS related to Syrah… Syrah + Peloursin = Petite Sirah.
Imagine Syrah as your dad + Peloursin as your mum = You… the star Petite Sirah. (DNA from Dr. Carole Meredith, professor emeritus from the University of California at David has proven conclusively that this is Petite’s DNA lineage.) *
I also failed to credit her as the person behind PSILY and I got the year of its inception wrong too (JR’s Wine Encylopedia’s fault this time)!
I hope that clears up any confusion!
That Supervalu (Rosslare Harbour), had some interesting wines, unlike the rest of the locality (inc Wexford town) which was pretty poor, unless you wanted to blow the wad in Greenacres.
Re Blog – Fraid not – work from now ’til end of June will be “hectic” to say the least, weekends , late nights etc. I may do the odd post if I have something amazing, but that’ll be it.
Willie
I’m lucky in that my work allows me ample time to write posts at my leisure. If I ever start a more demanding role I’ll probably cut back to one post a week, or maybe stop altogether!
I’d love to make it to Greenacres some day, have heard great things.
Greenacres has a fabulous amount of fine (and very expensive) wines. I couldn’t find anything to buy just to drink, of a weekday evening. Cheapest red was €16 I think and of uncertain provenance. But if you have money to burn…
Willie
that supervalu in Rosslare actually has quite a good selection. I’ve never been able to purchase there though, as I’m usually en route to France with an empty boot.
[...] Kiernan writes the Grapes of Sloth, and recently he published a post with a breakdown of his new scoring system. He also reviewed a brace of five star wines, both of [...]
Yeah, Greenacres has lots of good wines. Mainly Bordeaux & Burgundy. They also charge well for what they have compared to Classed Growth prices on wine-searcher in UK. As such, when I buy GCC Bdx, I usually get it sent from the UK. Very, very nice store though.
Also, I’m surprised you liked the Concannon. I’ve had one Petite Sirah from them that I bough at my mom’s local Rite-Aid drug store back in Michigan for about $11 — it sucked ass. That said, there’s a strong possibility it wasn’t the same bottling as the one you got. Suffices to say that the one I had blew. ** from me.
Petite Sirah is not related to Syrah afaik. It’s another name for Durif. Open to correction, but that’s my understanding.
Hey David.
Initially I had written they’re not related, then Jo Diaz – petite sirah expert – corrected me. Now you’re saying they’re not related. Decanter website sais they’re not related but they’re about to change that. I just don’t know what to think anymore!
I thought Concannon was the top name for petite sirah? Maybe your Rite-Aid bottle spent too long shelved next to the hot coffee machine or something! Maybe past-it vintage? Faulty? You should try this one. Even if someone wouldn’t like it as much as I did, I’d be amazed if anyone thought it a two-star, ass-eating effort!