Wines are a lot like people — nobody is truly perfect — yet we love, admire and revere those we love. The positives continue to shine brighter each day — and we are inclined to forgive when they miss the mark. And people — like wine — are always evolving. You can get a sense of who they were and who they might become, just by sharing a little bit of time with them.
Unti is one of those wines I always get excited about. They really has their heart in the right place — I thought that the moment I stumbled upon their vineyard and tasting room a few years back. They produce some very nice wines (including a great rose)– and they really let the wine speak for itself — they are modest, proud, earnest and genuine — and it truly shows in everything they do.
Unti is a fairly small operation (6,800 cases in 2006) and specializes in Rhone and Italian varietals.
Notes on the 2004 Petite Sirah
The nose on this wine is rather closed and flat — I don’t get a lot of fruit — and frankly, get a little bit of Old World funkiness (just a bit). The color is beautiful — dark garnet/purple/ruby. In the mouth it seems a bit closed, but it does show some nice cherry, cassis with a little dark raspberry with a hint of pine, eucalyptus and vanilla (?). I love the weight, structure and balance — solid, persistent finish.
This wine is 14.6% alcohol — and pretty extracted — but is also very dry — and the structure really holds everything together — all components are very nicely integrated. I look forward to seeing what this wine does in 3-4 more years…….
Not perfect, but recommended — and I would recommend a lot of Unti’s wines.
Vineyard notes
VARIETAL & VINEYARD: This wine is 100% Petite Sirah from a two acre block located on our Winery property. Planted in 1998, these vines are cordon trained using a vertical trellis to expose the fruit to sunlight. We routinely crop thin in order to improve flavor concentration, and to avoid bunch rot, a problem with this tight clustered varietal.
VINTAGE: The 2004 vintage was tricky for most of our varieties, it was excellent for Petite Sirah. An early bud-break, combined with a very sunny August and early September caused severe de-hydration of most of our grapes, it benefited the Petite Sirah by fully ripening the fruit. Our Petite Sirah has the dubious distinction of growing a heavy canopy, causing us to pass through the vineyard to remove excess leaves and fruit to expose the remaining bunches. In 2004, this canopy helped protect the bunches from over-exposure, thus we had fewer dried bunches with Petite than any other variety. The prolonged sunlight did result in fully ripe fruit that was void of some of the green tannins we can experience with this vineyard. We harvested the Petite October 1st at a near perfect 25.2˚ brix.
VINIFICATION: The grapes were cold soaked for five days in a stainless steel tank before fermentation began. We pump-over the wine, twice daily, during fermentation. We aged our Petite Sirah in 60% French oak barrels and 40% 4-year-old American oak barrels, for 13 months. During the first few months of barrel aging, we routinely stir the lees to enhance the wine’s texture. About 20% of the French oak barrels were new. This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.
