This week’s Bargain Wine is the 2015 Criss Cross Petite Sirah. The wine has 10% Syrah added. Most of the grapes come from the Clarksburg region, with the rest grown in Lodi; the label states it is a Clarksburg wine. The winemakers are David Akiyoshi and Karen Birmingham.
The Clarksburg AVA lies at the intersection of Solano, Sacramento, and Yolo counties; near the small town of Clarksburg. The region benefits from fog and cool breezes that keep it cooler than Sacramento. Although it is an AVA in its own right, only about 10% of the grapes grown there are crushed in wineries within the AVA. Petite Sirah plantings represent about 20% of the land under vine in the region; second only to Chardonnay. Pinot Noir is the third most common grape in the region but has less than half the acreage of the Petite Sirah.
The nose lacked nuance, with strong aromas of ripe cherry. The taste offered more complexity than the nose with lush flavours of cherry and plum. The medium finish still offered a lot of fruit, with some leather and the slightest tang of cooper. A sweetness, which was not unpleasant, also emerged in that finish.
My initial impression of this wine recorded in my notes was that the wine was good. However, over the course of the bottle and a second one that we had on a subsequent night, I found the wine’s fruit to be a little too dominant for my taste.
We bought two bottles of the Criss Cross Petite Sirah in the Bevmo 5c sale, so the price per bottle was $10. If you like your red wine with a lot of fruit, this is a wine you might well enjoy.
