Item Number: 7073 UPC: None

Country: USA
Region: California Sub Region: Solano County
Appellation/AVA: Suisun Valley
Vineyard Designation: Tenbrink Vineyard
Vintage: 2009
Grape(s): Petite Sirah
Type: Wine - Red
Bottle Size: 750ml Pack: 12
Closure: Cork
Alc by Vol(%): 15.5
About the wine: 2009 was a year of early and perfect ripeness for the Tenbrink's Petite Sirah vineyard in Suisun Valley. Steve's careful dry farming brought the fruit to deep richness and concentration without any roasting or over-ripeness. Yet this wine is utterly marked by a character related to the passito, dried-grape, wines of Northern Italy. It is not easy to put one's finger on-- but blind, the wine's nose is so often identified as Amarone or Sfursat. Not a jammy or cooked-fruit richness that can arise in Northern California, but instead a tarry, porcini, and leather character that points to another world.

Vineyard Notes: Remarkably, although located within a tiny 10,000 acres, there are three distinct climate zones in Suisun Valley, and Tenbrink has vines in each of them.

The "lower valley," where the winery is located, is windy and coolest portion of the district. A study done in 2009 by Terra Spase has shown it to be similiar to Carneros where world famous Pinot Noir vines also grow.

In the "mid valley" the winds are now buffered by Elk Horn Peak and also by the ridge leading up to Twin Sisters Mountain, providing idyllic growing conditions for the Chardonnay, Riesling, Tempranillo, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Muscat Canelli and Petite Sirah. References were made in the same Terra Spase report of simularities to the Bordeaux region for this portion of Suisun Valley.

In the "upper valley" the winds are completely blocked on all sides as the valley tapers into the canyons leading into Napa Valley. Here there is enough substance for Cabernet Sauvignon. Parallels were graphed in the Terra Spase report to the "growing degree days" (GDD) of Oakville and St. Helena to this area of Suisun Valley.