Tags
champagne, durif grapes, petite sirah, petite syrah, syrah, The Widow Clicquot, what I learned this week
I keep picking up these tidbits of information in which I typically respond “I had no idea”. I thought I should share them here after all that is what this blog is about: our journey of discovering wine. Perhaps “what I learned this week” will become a weekly post. But no promises.
While reading my monthly Food and Wine I learned that petite sirah is not a syrah. I know, gasp. Petite Sirah is a common reference to the Durif grapes. Durif grapes originated as a cross of Syrah pollen germinating a Peloursin plant. More wikipedia:
“Petite Sirah is sometimes mistakenly spelled “Petite Syrah,” which has historically referred to a small berried clone of the Syrah grape by Rhône growers.[13] In California, immigrant vine growers introduced Syrah in 1878 and used the phrase “Petite Syrah” to refer to the lower yields that the vines then were producing in California. Actual Petite Sirah (Durif) was then introduced in 1884.[1]“
Stayed tuned to next week when I am sure to tell you all about what I learned about champagne (and The French Revolution) from reading this novel:
