Wine of the Week: 2009 Per Cazo, Petite Sirah

Wow, it's Wine Wednesday once again, it's time for my wine of the week recommendation [I sense your excitement] and I hope everyone made great use of their extra day this year. It's a great story, one that gets told everyday in wine-country, how the Mrs. and I discovered this somewhat hidden Paso Rhone-Zone gem. It wasn't by chance, no actually it was based on a trusted recommendation from a friend in the tasting room at Calcareous Vineyards, who on the fly was able to secure us a last minute appointment.

We've been the beneficiary of these seemingly clandestine, but actually just impromptu meet-ups more than once and I've always found the experience better than I could have imagined. Proving the the old axiom; "living a life without passion, and without hope for the future is not really living your life at all" so take chances, be brave and above all stay open minded.

Mrs. Cuvee and I met with the owner, her name is Lynne, she is great, we had a delightful afternoon tasting four different wines, which she paired with cheese, she secured from the local Costco. I want to point that this may possibly be the very last winery NOT charging a tasting fee to sample their wines. The setting is an informal visit with the owners, no fancy architectural monstrosity to wade into with a mob of other vino-sapiens, no just a quiet, reflective opportunity to shoot the breeze, while sampling cheeses, thoughtfully prepared with pairing purposes in mind. The reason the cheese is purchased at Costco is so you can most likely grab that same cheese when you get back home, great idea.

By the way they also have a wonderful bed and breakfast [B&B], which we toured after the tasting, some pretty fab digs, the perfect place in Paso for a couples weekend or just a quick get-away, wonderfully appointed and has a very "cozy" inviting feel.  I love the name of their winery, it's called Per Cazo Per Cazo Cellars or roughly translated in Italian, "by chance" and was described to us as the way they found this great property, tucked away in Paso Robles on Vineyard Drive, just a few minutes from downtown Paso or 25 minutes for a quick dash to the coast.

Now about the wine in the in today's WOTW spotlight is their 100% dry-farmed Petite Sirah from the St. Peter of Alcantara Vineyard. This wine was decanted, before we arrived in a device that I've never seen before, I was totally intrigued by the concept. It's called the Rojaus wine decanter, seeing it action, I was pretty impressed with its easy to use, gravity flow system, although it's a bit pricey, it does seem like the ultimate wine-geek gadget to have. By the way, you can get it at Per Cazo for a nicely discounted price.

Okay back to the wine, it had that amazingly deep rich dark ruby/purple core, looking a bit like a blackberry jelly. The nose grabs you right away and you know you're in for a treat, ripe dark plum and figs play nicely together inviting the first slurp, where you're immediately treated to rich blackberry, more figs, plush leather, mocha and finely ground espresso in the background, all wonderfully integrated on a very smooth canvas of tannin, culminating in a seductively long finish.

As my head snapped back [thinking wow, PS I love you], I immediately scored this wine in my head 93 points, and thought how can I persuade Mrs. Cuvee to let me buy more, than four I was definitely leaving with? Nothing worked, still snagging four of these gems to take home, made me happy. This wine sells for $40 and is still available for purchase, at the moment, but I wouldn't wait too long as there was only a little over 100 cases produced. This folks is how you do it, one of the better examples of PS I've ran into in a long time and I highly recommend giving it a swirl, until next time, sip long and prosper, cheers!