Decided to make a little comfort food last night -- chuck roast braised in red wine with onions served over egg noodles. I'm never quite sure what to eat with the few Petite Sirahs I have in my cellar, so thought I'd give this match a try. Maybe not a classic match but worked pretty well.

Nice purplish/red color with just a bit of bricking on edges. Nose of blackberry, smoke and leather. Medium to full bodied with black fruits and cocoa. Tannins were still present but very manageable and gave the wine a nice full mouth feel. A good 30 second finish.

I didn't decant this because I was afraid it might fall apart too quickly, so there was a fair amount of sediment at the end of the bottle. But this wine didn't fall apart. I'd put it at 90-91pts for my palate. A very nice wine.

For comparison sake, I also opened up an '03 Bogle Petite Sirah. I bought this because of some good comments on here about previous vintages. Initially on opening, not much of a nose, tannins a bit tight with black fruits on the palate. After awhile it got very "grapey." Not a bad wine, but even at just $13 I can think of other wines I'd rather have. 83 pts.

Tough match for the Bogle there. I think it is a good house/table wine, but the last vintage I had was 02.

Also, I don't know where you bought it, but $13 is very high for Bogle PS. I pay $9 and some on the board pay $8-$8.50. For $13, there are better - for $9, not that many.

Hunter,

If you're referring to the matchup against the La Jota (rather than the food match), you're right. But I wanted to have that comparison because I've not had a lot of petite sirah. I wasn't expecting the Bogle to be as good.

As for the price, I might have paid less for it, but fairly certain I paid $10 at least -- the joys of living in Ohio. Even at $9, I have other wines I'd rather drink. But, as my score indicates, I agree with your assessment -- a "good" wine. I wish I had liked it better, so I could add it to my list of cheapies. Though I'll probably try another bottle sometime because as you point out...not easy to find wines one likes in that $10 range.