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Rob's "Wine of the Week" Archives

So here is my wine review for the week of November 26th...

CONCANNON RESERVE PETITE SIRAH 2004

Description: As an admitted Napa Valley snob I try to take every chance I can to confirm that no one else is making wine as good anywhere else in the world. I am usually confirmed in my thinking, especially in the Amador Valley/El Dorado/Lodi regions where I am convinced people are far more interested in claiming anything good comes from the area than they are actually true believers in the mostly putride grape juice that flows down from those foothills.

However, on occasion I find a diamond in the rough from somewhere outside of Napa. Anytime I see my father, who resides in the East Bay where I grew up, he brings me his favorite current bottle from Concannon Vineyards in Livermore, a surprisingly good winery that produces everything from mediocre to excellent wines grown along California’s central coast.

How and when I drank it: Saturday afternoon, November 24, 2007. I opened the bottle at Noon and began drinking at 12:30 and slowly sipped away throughout the day. On Wednesday, my dad and I shared and loved the 1999 petite sirah so I wanted to see how the younger bottle would stand up.

How to get it: Concannon is all over the Bay Area, in most every grocery store, liquor store and all bevmos. Because of the provincial nature of wine making today, it has had a hard time finding shelf space in the Northern California region outside of the bay, which is a shame since its’ quality far surpasses most of the local wines in the Sacramento region. The winery has a website and allows visitors to their winery to buy wine.

How Much: At the winery, about $30 per bottle

My Thoughts: Petite Sirah can be a difficult grape to grow correctly and even more tricky to turn into great wine. In fact, after my dad and I shared the 1999 Concannon, I opened a 2002 Pride Petite Syrah (one of the Cadillac wines of Napa) and the Pride was still too young and tight to be as pleasurable as the Concannon (it was excellent, just not as smooth on the palette).

The 2004 Concannon Petite Sirah shows most of the same qualities of the earlier vintages. As is customary in a good petite sirah, there are underlying layers of chocolate and dark berries, balanced nicely without biting the tongue. This bottle is wound just a little tight and needs another year or two before being the perfect match to a big lamb or beef dish.

Overall Score: At only $30 this wine easily makes the cut as being worthy of a dinner accompaniment. It is still just a little young, but will be perfect to drink sometime in 2008. 4 vines.

CONCANNON RESERVE PETIT SIRAH 2004 =