Canard Sauvage Petite Sirah 2009 Dry Creek Valley

February 27, 2011

Matt $10 Price Point, 2009, Canard Sauvage, Dry Creek, Petite Sirah, Sonoma, Worth-Buying 2 Comments

If you’re a faithful reader of my website, you’ll recall I recently reviewed the Zinfandel from Canard Sauvage; this wine remains my favorite Zinfandel from TJ’s, so I’m definitely excited to be trying another offering from Canard. This is a label you can only find at TJ’s – you know that since you’re a TJ’s Wine Insider. Thanks for all who participated in my poll last week and selected Petite Sirah as one of the next wines we’ll be talking about.

Canard Sauvage 2009 Petite Sirah Dry Creek Valley

The Wine: Petite Sirah is one of my new favorite wines. This is not the same as Syrah. Petite Sirah gets its name because they are related to Syrah, but the grapes are smaller, meaning they are more dense and concentrated, making this a ‘bigger’ wine. But I find this a juicer wine than Cabernet Savignon, but finer tannins/acid than Zinfandel, so I find this a grape which blends two components of wine I enjoy. How’s Canard’s Petite Sirah?

The Experience:

Color: This wine has some dense color, almost too dense for light to pass through. The color is a real deep, thick plum hue. I like.

Nose: Directly out of the bottle I pick up coconut, which I’ve found in a few wines as of late. The barreling really comes forward quickly and powerfully emanating vanilla and oak, but mainly dense vanilla. There is a good about of ‘dark’ and ‘red’ fruit, but I didn’t make note of anything in particular.

Palate: Not very much fruit jumps forward on this wine, it’s the barreling which really comes out dominate on this wine. It’s a really dense experience of vanilla, oak and a toasty finish consisting of a nice chalky component. There really isn’t much in the way of prickly tannins on this wine and there is no alcohol burn, since this wine is 13.7%. This is a Petit Sirah which lays heavier on the juicy and dense side.

Bottom Line: Worth-Buying

I think this is a pretty good bottle of wine to buy. It’s not the best, but that’s OK. It’s a $10 bottle of wine. It doesn’t redefine my benchmark for this grape, but that’s OK. I think this is a good wine to buy if you are having red meat or pizza. It’s available daily at TJ’s so no need to stock up. Pick-up this wine and move on, you’ve selected a good wine.

Question: Tell me about what you like about Petite Sirah

Wine Info:

  • Price: $10
  • Appellation: Dry Creek Valley
  • Alcohol: 13.7%

Canard Sauvage 2009 Zinfandel Dry Creek

January 24, 2011

Matt $10 Price Point, 2009, Buy-Half-A-Case, Canard Sauvage, Dry Creek, Trader Joe's Exclusive, Worth-Buying, Zinfandel 2 Comments

To continue preparing for The Week of Zinfandel, on Sunday, I visited Ridge Vineyards in Saratoga. Knowing that Ridge not only has a collection of Zinfandels to sample, but an assortment of Bordeaux varietal blends which are world renowned, this must be a great place to get my palate in check for these Zin reviews; this turned out to be a fantastic idea. I was able to taste five different Zinfandels, all with slightly to very different flavor profiles – the Lytton Estate offering was my favorite of all, with its classic Zin triad delivery of fruit, spice and tannins in perfect proportions.

A giant thank you to the Tasting Room Staff and special thanks to Christopher Watkins, the Tasting Room Manager, who poured two different vintages (1992 and 2007) of Ridge’s flagship and Judgement of Paris winning label, Monte Bello. That wine is almost indescribably amazing. Do yourself the huge favor and seek out Ridge’s wine or better yet, visit one of their tasting rooms in either Sonoma or Saratoga. If you visit Saratoga, you’ll understand why the winery is named Ridge.

But now for our wine today…

The Wine: Canard Sauvage is another Trader Joe’s exclusive with solid roots in the Napa Valley wine scene. The winery where this came from oddly does not offer Zinandel on their website, but has several award winning Cabernet Sauvignons in the $50 range – so this Zin could simply be a fun side-project for the wine maker(s). After reading the back label of this wine, you can only conclude this is in fact a fun side-project for the wine maker(s). Trader Joe’s is a great outlet for creative side-projects like this for talented wine makers looking to dabble for fun and/or expand their business.

The Experience:

Color: In the glass you’ll find the wine plum violet, but a tad on the thin side.

Nose: The first scent you pick up is the spice of this wine – you know this one is packing some power. Vanilla and oak begin making themselves known then the darker berry fruits begin to entertain you. I also began to pick up some green notes which reminded me bushes along a trail while hiking.

Palate: The first note I have written down is actually about the nice tight finish of this wine with great presense of blueberries on the back end which linger on for a bit. In the mid-palate you’ll find lots of sour cherries, spice, some heat and a tad of vanilla. You can tell this wine has seen oak aging, but it’s not overly apparent.

The Bottom Line: Worth-Buying/Buy-Half-A-Case

This is a solid Trader Joe’s regular offering which I feel exceeds the expectations of a Zinfandel at the $10 price point. If you like big Zinfandels, this is the wine you want to be picking up to go with your next BBQ.

Question: Do you prefer sweeter or more spicy Zinfandel?

Wine Dork Info:

  • Price: $10
  • Appellation: Dry Creek, Sonoma County
  • Cellar: Canard Sauvage
  • Alcohol: 14.8%

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