2004 Chavez-Leed Vineyard, Rutherford,
Napa Valley Petite Sirah
(Certified Organic Grapes)

Analysis

Vineyard Source: Frank and Beth Leed’s Vineyard in Rutherford

Harvest Date: September 11, 2004

Lab (harvest):
Brix – 26.7% sugar
pH – 3.71
Total Acidity – 5.2 grams/liter

Quantity Produced: 395 cases (12 x 750ml), 45 cases (6 x 1.5 l)

Date of Bottling: November 21, 2005

Barrels: 12 months in 50% new and 50% one year old French oak

Lab (bottling):
pH – 3.95
Total Acidity – 5.8 grams/liter
Volatile Acidity - .81 grams/liter
Free Sulfur Dioxide – 27 parts per million
Total Sulfur Dioxide – 58 parts per million
Alcohol – 16%

I have been making wine out of these wonderful grapes for 15 vintages now. Each year, the grower and I learn a bit more about how to grow the grapes more perfectly, and I learn a little more about how to make the wine better. This wine has been my favorite “Pets” project for years and years now, and I never get tired of drinking the result!

While Petite Sirah started out in France as a minor variety of the Rhone, it is no longer grown there and is only grown to a tiny extent, under the name “Durif”, anywhere else in the world. One could say that Petite Sirah, at this point, is THE grape of California. Every winemaker I know thinks of it as their favorite grape. What makes “pets” so good? Hard to say, it just is perfect—perfect fruit, perfect weight, and perfect structure, wonderful to drink young, even better to drink old.

This wine is a winner. It is immense, it will take no hostages, it will sooth, it will please, and in the end you will be pouring out your other wines because they just don’t satisfy you anymore…you will never want to drink anything but (this) Petite Sirah again!

Awards to date:

• Gold/Best of Show – Hilton Head Competition
  
• Gold – World Wine Championship (Beverage Testing Inst.)
  
• Silver – Long Beach Grand Cru, Silver – Florida State Fair