Vina Robles Winery

It’s hard to find a well-balanced Petite Sirah that’s also complex among the many brawny monsters or, the reverse, wanting versions in the marketplace. But Vina Robles has just released two amazing Petite Sirahs. The impressive 2004 Jardine Vineyard is nicely-balanced offering succulent flavors of wild blackberries, highlighted with blueberries and plums. It ends on a long fruity finish nuanced by smoke and spice. I thought it an excellent value at $27 retail.

And then I tasted their outstanding 2003 Petite Sirah designated “Endpost” and was swept away by its plush texture and layers of complexity. This delicious, intense wine offers aromas and flavors of sweet, ripe boysenberries, briary wild blackberries, currants, plums and blueberries, handsomely weaved with myriad spice-box notes. Yet it’s continually smooth and velvety on the palate.

The Petite Sirah for this wine was also grown at the estate’s Jardine Vineyard, one of their warmer sites, where alluvial sandy loam soils – primarily gravelly loam and clay loam – provide good drainage. Winemaker Matthias Gubler and his team noticed the clusters nearest the end of the trellised row had better sun exposure, making them “richer and more luscious,” hence the proprietary name. At $45 retail, it’s hardly an everyday wine but still a very good value for wine of this quality.

Reviewed October 11, 2006 by Kathy Marcks-Hardesty.