Oliverhill Petite Sirah 2007

93 pts Robert Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate - Earth, mineral, cedar, and assorted black fruits. Full-bodied

Tasting Notes

Another dry winter, followed by dry hot days and cold night temperatures during spring. A heavy downpour in January gave the vines a much deserved drink, with no berry splitting evident across all our varieties. Our Petite Sirah fa ired better than our Jimmy Section, with yields on average. There was low disease incidence with all varieties. The 2007 wines show rich fruit characters with fine mouth filling tannins.

Food Accompaniments

Red meat dishes.

Awards, Reviews and other Notes

93 pts Robert Parker Jr.'s The Wine Advocate (JM)
The opaque purple/black 2007 Petite Sirah,is aged for 17 months in 20% new American oak hogsheads. The nose gives up notes of earth, mineral, cedar, and assorted black fruits. Full-bodied on the palate, the wine is rich, layered, and contains a boatload of ripe tannin that will require 10-12 years of cellaring for the wine to blossom. When it does, it should be sublime in the manner of a well-aged Ridge Vineyards Petite Sirah.

88 pts Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar (JR)
Opaque ruby. Powerful cherry-cola and boysenberry aromas are complemented by vanillin oak and baking spices. Sweet dark berry preserve flavors are on the oaky side but deep and pure, with supple tannins adding support. A suave mineral note arrives on the finish and adds lift and welcome cut. I’d have liked this more with the sweet oak turned down a notch.

Winemaker Notes

The fruit is hand picked determined by flavour. The fruit is destemmed then crushed into 3 tonne open fermenters. The Petite Sirah is inoculated with Lalvin D245 yeast. Hand plunging takes place four times a day or more.The wine is fermented to dryness on skins, average 12-14 days. It is then basket pressed, into tank and left overnight to settle, then into barrels, Barrels are a combination of Vicard and Seguin Moreau American oak Hogsheads. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel; the wine then racked three times over 12-18 months. The wine is then coarse filtered, sulphured and bottled. All processes take place on premise.

Chemical Analysis

Price

SKU

Varietal

Alcohol %: 15.5
Total Acid: 7.2
Free/Total Sulfur: 40/107
pH: 3.52
Residual Sugar:

$24.99

7857

Shiraz