Stag's Leap District

For years I had a Stag's Leap Petite Sirah poster. The glass broke a long way back, and when I moved out of my apartament in Wicker Park, I finally decided the stains of time on the surface of it were too various not to throw it away. When a guest didn't finish their bottle of 2005 tonight, I decided it was high time to taste a bottling whose label I'd been staring at for years, and never tasted. The 2005 Stag's Leap Petite Sirah is a great big monster of a wine, with a nose of blackberries, cassis and black pepper and a palate with all of the above, plus black plums, allspice, bergamot and rock dust. Petite Strah, which is now accepted to be a cross of Peloursin and Dwif, doesn't resonate in a subtle register. The acid is high, the tannins powerful, and the alcohol pronounced. There's almost a zinfandel-like quality to it, with its heat and lush fruit, but each grape has its own story, as I'm starting to learn.