2015 Lytton Estate Petite Sirah, Dry Creek Valley

The 2015 Petite Sirah Lytton Estate offers an inky color (it’s Petite Sirah) as well as backward, intense notes of liquid violets, blackberry, blueberries, graphite and ample minerality. It's a big, inky, concentrated and firm Petite Sirah that needs forgotten for 5-6 years, and will age effortlessly over the following decade. There’s roughly 2,000 cases produced and it’s well worth buying. Ridge continues to produce a stacked lineup from their estate vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, as well as numerous sites in Sonoma County. These reviews focus mostly on their 2015s, which was the earliest harvest on record for Ridge. Nevertheless, the wines show terrific purity and elegance, and it’s a rock-solid vintage for the estate. The Bordeaux blends are from the 2014 vintage, which was another hot, dry year. These are big, ripe, sexy releases that have the fruit and depth to drink nicely today, yet are going to age beautifully.

The 2015 Petite Sirah Lytton Estate is all class. There is plenty of depth to the inky blue and purplish Petite fruit, while the tannins are remarkably polished for a young Dry Creek Petite. Hints of lavender, tobacco, mint, smoke and crème de cassis develop in the glass, adding further shades of complexity. This clay-rich site seems to be especially well suited to Petite. Whole berry fermentation and gentle extractions yield and especially refined Petite. The 2015 is another drop-dead gorgeous wine from Ridge.