Cabana Winery Petite Sirah

Tasting notes & discussion 18

95 Pts & Gold Medal (California State Fair)

Typically $35/bottle from Cabana Winery
Vintage 2022 from Lodi
Available for AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Cabana Winery: “My daughters wanted to open an urban winery and I wanted a boutique winery where we could produce wines from the best vineyards and control the process. Cabana was born in 2011, our first 7 years were in Sacramento, and as the focus became on expanding our production, we moved to Lodi. At Cabana, we ferment in small lots and barrel-age the wine in French oak. Then I used my 30 years of wine-making experience to produce the final blend of our award-winning wines. We now produce 18 wines from Lodi, Napa, and Amador counties.”

Dark Chocolate, You Say

TASTING NOTES: “A big plush wine, with loads of blackberries, and dark chocolate. A full-bodied wine, with nice balance and big tannins, giving a ‘silky’ feel on your palate. Lovely aromas of cedar and black pepper waft through the wine. This is a full-bodied wine, that will age well, but is meant to be enjoyed now.“ (AbV 15%, pH 3.50, TA 0.61 g/100mL)

VARIETALS: Petite Sirah

BARRELS: 18 months in French oak.

PAIRS WITH: BBQ, Italian and Mexican food, grilled meats, and your spiciest dishes.

THAT REMINDS ME OF: I mean, dark chocolate. It’s interesting, how much metal is inside of it. Not like it’s eating aluminum or something, but cacao has relatively high amounts of minerals and antioxidants in it. So predictably, the chocolate with the most cacao involved is going to retain a lot of that stuff.

What kinds of metals? Well, those’d be iron, copper, manganese, zinc, magnesium… The good stuff. Mostly.

There has been a little issue of some other metals showing up in dark chocolate. Namely cadmium and lead. The cadmium gets naturally pulled into cacao from the soil the trees grow in. Getting rid of that aspect would require replacing the soil itself or breeding plants that don’t take up as much. The lead, however, gets there after harvest, which feels like it’d be an easier fix.

In any case, you might say dark chocolate is metal as hell.

Winemaker Robert Smerling introduces his Petite Sirah

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

Favorite type of chocolate?

Dark

Dark
Milk

Milk
White

White
Other (comment in the discussion)

Other (comment in the discussion)

43 votes