Today’s Cougar’s Leap Winery 2009 Black Rock Red Hills Petite Sirah took our recent tasting panel by storm! Panelists gave the wine ratings that ranged from a ‘low’ of 93 points to a high of 95 points. This is well deserved praise for this bold, delicious and layered wine from 100 point winemaker Nils Venge.

Nils was the first winemaker in America to earn a perfect 100 point score for an American-made wine. This was in 1985, when he achieved this honor with his Groth Vineyards Cabernet Reserve. Today, Nils makes award-winning wines for Envy Wines, Keenan Winery, Plumpjack Winery, Cade Estate Winery and Brian Edwards Wines - as well as his own Saddleback Cellars and Cougar’s Leap Winery.

Today’s wine is intense and bold on the nose, with ripe boysenberry, blackberry, blueberry and plum. These are accompanied by black currant, dark spice, cedar, dark oak and graphite with subtle cocoa and black pepper notes. Robust and alive in the mouth, with big flavors of blackberry and plum compote out in front, followed by blueberry, black cherry, red plum, grilled black fig, leather, dark spice, oak and cocoa.

This is a definite crowd-pleaser of a wine, and we are proud to offer it to you… but be warned, there isn’t very much left.