Price: $14
Maker: Concannon Vineyard, Livermore & San Luis Obispo, California
Varietal: Petite Syrah
Packaging: 750 ml bottle, natural cork
Alcohol: 13.5%
Our Rating: 8.9 out of 10
Concannon Limited Release Petite Sirah 2005 (Limited Release) sets high expectations by calling itself “America’s Finest Petite Syrah.” We haven’t tasted enough Petite Syrahs to confirm their assertion, but this red wine doesn’t disappoint. It delivers a big, rounded black cherry flavor and a long, peppery finish with well-balanced tannins. This is a very pleasant wine by itself, and would pair well with a nice grilled strip steak.
Water Into Wino wasn’t a fan of the 2004 vintage, calling it “not at all my style” and suggesting that it smelled like a purple magic marker. Ouch. Tom and Melody liked it a lot more: “It was delicious: tannic with jammy, plummy fruit and a rich, full body. A great example of a wine with a lot of fruit taste that is also dry so that it’s definitely not a fruit bomb.” CheapFunWines thought it was, “Pleasant, soft and easy to drink.” Wine Centric called it “pure heaven.”
We like this wine a lot, and think it would make a nice hostess gift – the bottle is very attractive, the wine is great, and a Petite Sirah is a bit different from the more common Cab or Merlot.
My bottle of the same wine says “America’s First Petite Sirah”, not “Finest.” But it is in script and easy to misread. It has blackberry and black raspberry flavors, slightly sour – somewhat like a french burgundy in a cool year or the younger brother of the David Bruce petite sirah. Color was a beautiful reddish purple. There were hints of mineral and even more subtle woodsy flavors. Good body and should hold up well to food. A perfect food match hasn’t sprung to mind, but then this is listing at $11.99 at World market and was on sale today at $8.99. That makes this the finish Petite Sirah under $10.00.
I have other Petite Sirah’s I would buy at $17 to $20, but this is one of the best I know of at the $10.00 to $15.00 range (another is the Pedroncelli Petite Sirah).