What's New

Harvest 2008

The 2008 growing season was tricky for many vineyards but Petrali seems to have been lucky both at the beginning and end of the season. Just after bud break in the spring there was a late frost. Many growers lost some or all of their crops, particularly among some of the more delicate varietals. The location of our vineyard combined with the hardiness of the Syrah vine allowed our grapes to continue on undaunted.

An extended heat wave welcomed July so we all stopped worrying about the effect of the frost and worried about sun burned grapes instead. After that broke, it was actually quite cool, until the end of summer when temperature spiked again. This caused many vintners to pick early, worried that the alcohol levels in the grapes would surge. Then, miraculously, in defiance of the weather predictions, there were 10 days of unseasonably cool weather which slowed everything back down.

Working with our vineyard manager, David Cook, we decided to water the grapes a little more and hang on to pick. Our worry was that picking early would lead to wine that was light on fruit and structure – in other words, not great. We still ended up picking earlier than ever before but not until September 25th. When we pressed the grapes on October 5th, we were pleased to taste a lot of great fruit as the juice headed into the barrels.

Our Website

We are very excited that finally we have a place to send people when they ask how to buy our wine. We’ve been selling friends on an ad hoc basis but now it will be easy for you to see what we have released and order it. We welcome suggestions and feedback about the site. Keep an eye on this, the “What’s New” page for news about releases, special offers and what’s going on around the vineyard in general.

Mogoloo is on the way...

One of Peter’s favorite expressions is: “Don’t negotiate with terrorists.” The terrorists he is usually referring to – as darling as they are – are our daughters Leigh and Blythe. When we first launched Petrali, the girls were not thrilled with the name. “Petrali is Peter and Ali put together. What about Blythe and Leigh?” they asked. They developed a scheme to make their own wine and sell it for a dollar a bottle at a stand at the end of the driveway.

So now you understand why we made our first blend – a Rhone-style mixture of Syrah, Viognier, Mouvedre and Petite Sirah – with part of our 2005 harvest and called it Blythleigh. Everybody is happy now, right? Well, to Peter’s point about terrorists, Mog, our sweet chocolate labradoodle, hasn’t been the same since we released Blythleigh so he’s getting a blend too.

Mogoloo, one of Mog’s many nicknames, will also be the name for our Grange-style blend which we will be making with part of the 2008 harvest. Now you won’t be seeing this wine for a while. We need to age our Syrah in the barrel and then blend it with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon (about 10% of the total) and send it back to the barrel for a little longer. The result should be a big red that is nicely balanced with plenty of fruit and lots of structure. It will go well with many of Mog’s favorite foods including roasted meats. The terrorists are appeased.