PETITE SYRAH

The world is into our 5th wave of COVID-19 deaths, and perhaps 6th, if you count two in that middle wave  Note, however, that there seems to be a definite decline of new deaths in our current surge:

However, if you look closely at the Worldometer data:

• The USA yesterday dwarfed other countries in new cases with 171,125 and new deaths with 1761.
• India and the UK were at around 37,000.
• Russia had the second most new deaths with 789 and Mexico was next with 730.
• Florida had the most new cases in the country with 17,854, but did not report how many new deaths they had.  
• Texas had 17,208 new cases and 412 new deaths, the most in the nation, if higher than Florida.  This rate is 14 new deaths/million population.
• The world new deaths/million yesterday was around 1.0.  India was only at 0.2/million.
• Russia had 5.4 new deaths/million.
• Hawaii had 5.8 new deaths/million, higher than Russia, which yesterday had the second-most new deaths in the world.
• What is wrong with the USA???

Petite Syrah is the new darling red wine in California.  In the 1860's, French botanist Francois Durif kept a nursery of mostly Peloursin and Syrah.  There was some natural cross-pollination leading the identification in 1868 of what was called Plant du Rif, which was later called Durif, and now mostly known as Petite Syrah in the U.S., but they are genetically different.  This grape is now rarely found in France.  Central California and Australia primarily grow Petite Syrah, with Israel becoming prominent, and some spread into South America.

This is confusing, but Petite Syrah is not Petite Sirah nor Syrah nor Shiraz.  If you got that, now know that Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape, the latter if grown in Australia.  Further, Petite Sirah, or Durif, is still frequently spelled Petite Syrah.  It's difficult to distinguish between the two, so who really should care.

If you're familiar with Australia's Penfolds Grange, that is a Shiraz.  A 1951 PG was sold last year for $104,587.  This grape is found in 40% of Australian grapes.  The French Syrah comes from the Rhone region, south of Burgundy.  You'll find both names used when this wine comes from other regions like New Zealand, Africa and South American, usually Syrah when a desire is made to indicated Old World.

One more aside:

• The wine, burgundy, comes from Burgundy, and is mostly Pinot Noir.
• White Burgundy is Pinot Chardonnay, but called Chablis if from other parts of the France.

• 
  Bordeaux wines come from the Bordeaux region, and are a blend of a variety of grapes, primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.  Maybe the most famous of all-time is Chateau Lafite Rothschild.
• Three 1869 bottles sold for $230,000 each in 2010.
• While you can find bottles in certain years for a cheaper price, a typical bottle purchased in a wine shop today would go for $1000.
• On 21February2019 four of us were treated to a whole bottle in their tasting room, for free.
• 
  White Bordeaux comes in dry, mostly Sauvignon blanc, or sweet, from Sauvignin blanc, Semillon and Mascadelle, notable for noble rot, with Sauternes as the most popular.  Chateau d'Yquem is particularly noteworthy, and a bottle goes for $500.

Back to Petite Syrah, it is called petite because the berry is smaller.  When stored in oak,  the aroma of melted chocolate is frequently mentioned.

When Nixon was being impeached because of Watergate in 1973, I was working at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion living in an apartment next to one of the Wente Brothers'.  One of my lab mates, a Concannon, asked me one day if I wanted to taste a new wine his family recently bottled for sale.  I met him in his garage and he said we are the first two people to taste this wine, a Petite Syrah.  In those days, and mind you, this was nearly half a century ago, I was into sweet wines like Lambrusco and Blue Nun.  I remember well that first taste, for it was reminiscent of the first time I had buttermilk.  I expected to experience the smoothness of butter.  Instead, it was like milk gone sour.  Well, this Petite Syrah was terrible!  I cringed, but was diplomatic to say, very interesting.

I forgot about Petite Syrah for more than 40 years, but in a tasting of this wine by Chaine des Rotissiers, these fellow members all lauded the excellence of the wine, particularly two from Paso Robles.  The feeling was that if you could find a bottle from this area for less than $40, buy it.  I've been searching local shops, but I've never once seen a Paso Robles Petite Syrah in Hawaii.

My memory of Paso Robles was that from 1958-1962 it was a dusty town we zoomed through several times a year when I travelled on 101 between Stanford and Oxnard.  Never stopped once.  There are now more than 200 wineries in this small town.

I've more recently been planning to visit Paso Robles, which is located exactly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Perhaps an Amtrak trip to also involve San Jose and Santa Barbara would be nice.

I finally purchased four bottles of Petite Syrah from Tamura's, all for less than $15/bottle, but none from Paso Robles.

What goes best with Petite Syrah?  I opened a 6th Sense from Lodi.  Goes well with everything.  First, spaghetti:

The next day was Thursday, the first game of NFL play, Dallas Cowboys at Tampa Bay Bucs.  I had to make myself the most iconic drink from Tampa.  Nothing.  Some mention about bourbon and rum, but all the popular drinks were recent concoctions.  Tampa is known for coffee and cigars.

So I found in my cabinets a combination, which I would call the Tampa Bay Bucs, starting with a double expresso from our 15 Craigside coffee machine.

I once smoked cigars.  I have two humidors with a bunch of very expensive cigars.

The third photo is of my karaoke bag and contents.  Did I at halftime smoke a cigar?  

Next, this Petite Syrah with foie gras pate', cheese, croissant, salad and the best duck soup I've ever had:

I added three small chunks of Japanese wagyu beef, shiitake mushrooms and green onions to the soup.

Finally, the remainder of this Petite Syrah accompanied a luau:

Petite Syrah indeed goes well with anything.

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At Category 4, Typhoon Chanthu is ready to make landfall over Taipei:

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