Premiere release - 2007 Tercero Petite Sirah Santa Ynez Valley

Larry Schaffer is a name that is well known and respected in the Cal-Rhone circles. He is a passionate experimenter in the raw materials he works with from the Santa Ynez Valley appellation with his fledgling Tercero label. I visited with him briefly at the recent Rhone Rangers tasting in San Francisco, quickly realizing there was no way I could go through the multitude of beakers and bottles he had lined up in less than 20 minutes; precious time to devote to one producer. Luckily, I have a box of samples from Larry and delved in to a couple of them this week. The one I decided to write about in Worth Noting is his first release of a varietal Petite Sirah - the iconoclastic grape that in California can range from charmingly ‘pretty’ to brutally tannic.

When I first entered the wine business in 1990 I worked a lot with Vincent Arroyo’s Petite Sirah Estate which curiously is literally across the street from my house now. I told customers to drink them in the first year of release or wait 15 years. Anywhere in between was a roll of the dice in how the tannins would be showing at a particular time.  We did such a good job sending people to visit Vincent that he put all of our customers on his mailing list and had no more wine for us. Taken at the right time they were memorable. 

Tercero

One of the things I have continually noted about Tercero in the three plus years I have patiently sampled them is that in most cases 85% of what is in the bottle is screaming good and the other 15% has me scratching my head. I experienced this when I twisted caps on the 2007 Watch Hill Grenache, and 2007 The Climb, a 50/50 Syrah - Petite Sirah blend last Fall. I wrote a full page of single-spaced notes in October and it was only on the finish that the wines lost it for me, troubled by a green bean character at the end that was out of place given how the rest of the wine showed. Because they were being considered for the Top wine list of 2010, I did not publish my thoughts. His white wines, especially the 2009 Grenache Blanc, Camp 4, is a glorious example of exuberent freshness and sells for $20.00

2007 Tercero Petite Sirah Santa Ynez Valley; $28.00 DW 90

14.3% alcohol

A: prune plums and chocolate with hints of graphite, earth, cinnamon and dried sage

P: a dense, polished core of textured blue and blackberry, stone fruits and soft notes of salted licorice

I: This wine took several hours to really find a voice. When first opened it was very angular and not appealing at all. Needs a hearty side of beef to match up to its weight. 

For more information on Tercero, go to their website.