Tasting Notes: 2011 Switchback Ridge Petite Sirah – I decided to decant this wine, so I poured it into a gift decanter I’ve never used. At least, I think that’s what I did – it could have easily been one of those glass flower pots from Kroger. Anyway, I sampled it too early, before it had really opened up, and it was like drinking a cotton ball. A bit later in the evening, it tasted more like chocolate and iron and berry and sweet, sweet revenge, with a hint of I’m-probably-gonna-forget-to-play-the-tooth-fairy-tonight. I paired it with the sausage my children inexplicably refused to eat while standing over the kitchen sink pretending to do something more important so I didn’t have to be at the table listening to my youngest son sing the theme song from Flash Gordon. If I had the discipline to let the wine sit longer, I can tell it would have been fabulous. But instead, I polished it off shortly after dinner while my daughter practiced for her spelling bee. “No I can’t use ‘hoi polloi’ in a sentence, because *nobody* has *ever* used ‘hoi polloi’ in a sentence.” I rate this wine a Hell Yes.