Tasting Notes The 2018 Petite Sirah berries were very small and slightly dehydrated resulting in an impressive wine with very dark, opaque color, beautiful nose of concentrated blue berries and blackberries that leads to a full body mouth feel with engagingly soft tannins. Overall the aromas are of fresh dark fruit and very attractive. Longevity, if stored properly, is one of the virtues of this variety and it will give you the most enjoyment in 5-8 years.

Overall Dark & deeply concentrated

Mouthfeel Engagingly soft

Aromas Cocoa, slight earthiness followed by brown sugar and a touch of vanilla-contribution of the new oak

Pairings Burgers, Barbecue, Rich Stews

Sustainability Sustainable In Practice t

The 2018 season had an interesting but moderate mix of conditions. The year started slow with little pressure from the weather providing the grapes with a long hang time to develop ripeness and flavor maturity without over ripening. In early October, Mother Nature delivered a quick tango of heavy rain that prompted us to use canopy management techniques to open the fruit zone, allowing the sun and wind to dry out the remaining fruit. Even though more than an inch of rain fell during the middle of harvest, it had no impact on Cabernet and little or no impact on Zinfandel grapes. Overall, fruit quality has been excellent with very little shrivel and little or no rot. Our harvest began at somewhat normal time almost a month later than the 2017.In 2018 about 85% of the grapes were fermented in closed top Stainless Steel tanks and the rest in small ½ ton open top bins. The 2018 La Storia Petite Sirah was made by blending most of our best blocks of Petite Syrah including some Zin and Syrah. Petite Sirah grapes are very sensitive to wet weather conditions but luckily all blocks were ripe and ready for harvesting before the rain in mid-October.