Big Carl's Adventures Under the Big Top

Just the other night, Big Carl decided to take a trip under the big top!

Michael David's "Petite Petit- 2007" was the featured wine of the evening.  The label is what really drew me in.  Cartoony and funny with catchy phrases on the back.  This wine is a blend: 85% Petite Sirah and 15% Petit Verdot.  I had never had a petit verdot so I thought I would give it a whorl (well actually Devan bought it for me as I had said on multiple occasions how I wanted it).

The bottle was very difficult to open.  The cork was very dry and cracked and split, ultimately falling apart as I continued to insert the screw.  I eventually had to take a pair of pliers and pull what hadn't fallen apart, out of the bottle. The cool thing with the cork though is the ends had little black elephants on them. The initial bouquet was nice- light and fruity, of which had me excited!  Upon the first taste I was a bit taken.  The intense tannins and oak seemed to knock my head against the wall.  The finish was as if someone flipped the light switch. It was very light and didn't seem to linger too long.  I noticed blackberry and vanilla notes throughout, but I had to wade through the oak barrels to get to them!  Medium-full body- started off heavy then quickly turned light.

Turns out, this petite-petit isn't so petite.  These elephants have a BIG pair of balls!!!  I think I will try it once more to see if maybe I had a crummy bottle.  Devan was less than pleased with it and chose to dump it and open a much better bottle of Pinot Noir.