EAST COAST PALATE

These wine shed any pretense, come packaged in screw caps and fun, colorful labels.  They might not fit the bill for a fancy celebration, but what really counts is what's inside, and the vintner at the Big House Wine Co. has done a great job making a tasty product that costs from $10 to $13.
2005 The Prodigal Son Petite Sirah: Don't confuse this varietal with Syrah.  The Petite Sirah grape is a crossbreed of Syrah and Peloursin, and in France it's commonly called Durif.  It definitely has some of the peppery qualities of Syrah, but for me this particular wine had some very nice floral aromas not typical of California Syrah.  It was like someone giving me some Zinfandel with a sachet of pot pourri hiding in the bottom of the glass.  The flavors are much like Zinfandel, with prunes and black cherries leading the charge.  Unfortunately, this wine's taste vanishes quickly, leaving only a dry, tingly sensation in the gums and cheeks.
It's a low B wine for me.  I'd like to see more balance on the back end of it, but really I was happy to try a varietal Petite Sirah, and to learn that in California they grow quite a bit of this grape and grow it well... for a more thorough look at Petite Sirah, check out www.psiloveyou.org

2006 The Slammer Syrah: When I opened this bottle and poured a little into a glass, the wild aromas wafted and excited me to the point where I was running around putting the glass under my friends' noses.  This wine is aromatically insane - truly funky, weird odors flood out of this wine, and I love the uniqueness of it.
This Syrah from California's Central Coast has aromas of blackberry and pepper that mix it up with freshly unearthed mushrooms, sweaty socks, and Green Giant canned asparagus.  The overall olfactory impression is swampy and dank, but the wine has some solid fruit, and decent structure.  It is more medium bodied and I think it would benefit from more tannins.  From behind the crazy smells emerges a lush and flavorful wine.  I like this enough to give it 88-89 points, B+ juice.  It's a great experience, and I'd recommend this wine to take to a blind tasting group just to see others react to it.
Visit the jail-themed Big House website at www.bighousewine.com.