What music best matches the vibe of Petite Sirah? Short answer: it depends on the Petite. If they’re massively dense and tannic, you’ll want a heavier sound, like March Slave, Pearl Jam or Beethoven’s 9th. If the Petite leans towards vibrant, effusive and cheery, maybe something more like Amy Grant or Faith Hill. Got a sexy, flirty, saucy Petite? Jazz works, anything from Coltrane to Diana Krall.Music certainly influences mood: I know from experience in tasting rooms that if you play Eagles or Cream, people will engage in a way that boring, bland elevator music can never engender. Music carries an inherent sense of time that bonds us together: we live to remember, to share and share again. It’s part of the ritual of being human. Definitely endorphin-producing, recalling that first listening encounter of a loved band or artist brings a flood of memories. It’s the foundation upon which new positive mileposts are engraved in the brain, accentuated by the communal tasting of wine in a place made more memorable because of familiarity. To associate a favorite piece of music with a certain wine is to create an indelible memory. Thanks to Jo Diaz of PS I Love You for creating the forum for a handful of wine writers including Dan Berger, Steve Heimhoff, Ken Payton, Clark Smith and myself, to share a compendium of Petites, 19 in all, brown-bagged in tasted out on the deck at Hess Collection on an impending return of winter day. Grey clouds swirled and the wind snuck out of the north, toying with dump cups, scattering napkins and threatening to topple any glass not sufficiently weighted down with the hefty ballast of Petite Sirah. All the better. Petite Sirah is not a warm weather maiden: nope, she wears Uggs and faux fur (real fox if she’s from Napa) and tends towards wooly scarves and fleece. This is a wine of warmth and coziness: of dark chocolate cake and pie and sinful indulgences that invite voluptuously rich, molasses-filled jazzy voices like Ella Fitzgerald or Toni Morrison or Nora Jones to fill your ears with their purple haziness. No, actually, I don’t think Hendrix works with Pet: he’s more suited to Tannat or an animalistic Carignane, maybe a Mourvedre. But I digress. The jazzy CD we were “tasting” along with 19 black beauties from around the state, clearly called for wines that we labeled “sexy,” “sultry,” and in some cases, soulful. We decided to cut to the chase and focus on four cuts. For the first selection, “I Feel So Smoochie,” my choices were the 2007 Twisted Oak from Calaveras, and the 2007 Clayhouse from Paso. Both had bright citrus and strawberry notes that had a liveliness and light heartedness to them that accentuated the spirit of the song. These two had swing, baby!Next up was “He’s Funny That Way,” a more pensive and soft sitting on the couch with lots of pillows jazz tune, that I loved with the 2006 Vina Robles Jardine (Paso Robles), a soft, mellow incense-laden beauty, oozing of blackberries and blueberries, and big black cherries. We all grooved to “P.S. I Love You:” the tune that galvanized the tasting: my heartthrob fave was the 2007 Artezin Garzini Ranch (Mendocino). It exhibited everything I adore about Petite, and none of the doggy, toe fungus, left too long in the sun banana bread crap that finds its way into bottles, alas. Clark and Dan and I seemed to come back to this one over and over, enjoying the way it caressed the palate without flogging it into purple submission.“Fever” definitely had that up tempo that I longed for: some of the wines needed a zestier beat, and the 2007 Artezin Mendocino delivered the citrus zest and flirty vibrancy that flooded the palate with gorgeous acidity and finely honed tannins.I love Dan Berger: he insisted on pairing with “La Vie En Rose,” the rendition of which was not quite his cup of mystery wine, which is his favorite thing, but nonetheless we were pretty keen on 2007 Line 39, a vivaciously flirty beauty from Lake County (only $10!!) and 2007 Lava Cap, a spicy, smooth, sexy and lingerie-lingering temptress that does El Dorado proud.My five favorite Petites of the day were the 2005 Quixote, Napa, brought by winemaker Matt Reid, which I wanted to pair with a Mozart piano concerto; the 2007 Artezin from Garzini Ranch in Mendocino, which was lovely with jazz, but would be even sweeter with a classic sweet and sexy love song (Rosemary Clooney or even Doris Day would work nicely); the 2007 Artezin Mendocino, which was great with bitter chocolate cake and would be fun with salsa music also; the 2007 Concannon “Conservancy” from Livermore Valley, with its varietally perfect expression from Livermore Valley, which would be great with something mellow and soothing; and the 2005 Diamond Ridge from Lake County, which I could imagine kicking back on my deck with Bob Dylan’s “Tangled up in Blue.”Petite has finally arrived: may your ears turn as purple as your teeth as you dig in and enjoy its dark, baritone deliciousness, while searching for iPetite tunes on your iPod.
