Drinking A Lost Piece Of Napa Valley History

Broker friend of ours came in the other day, selling us some wine, as they usually do, and in his bag was something that we had never seen before, and I like to pride ourselves on having this insane amount of wine knowledge, and knowing every label, and knowing everything, and being those types of people, but the wine he brought out of his bag, it was like, what the ham is that? And he's like, oh, it's Voces, Voces Cellars. So I knew Voces was Spanish for voices. And other than that, I had no idea what was going on with this wine. And he brought it out of the thing and put the cork in it. And I took a quick look at the labels. It said 2013 Napa Valley Petit Syrah. 2013. That's 13 years old. That's 13 years old. And then I got real curious because, first of all, there's not a lot of Petit Syrah left in the Napa Valley. And I know most of the top vineyards that make it, and they're some of the greatest vineyards in the valley. Second of all, 2013 was a great, great vintage in the Napa Valley. Third of all, Petit Syrah has a wonderful penchant for aging. So I was immediately intrigued by the bottle. And yeah, he busted out and poured me a little slab of this stuff. And I thought, I knew we were in the money right from the start. And then, started looking it up, and the story here is pretty cool. This is the private label of Fernando Candelario. And Fernando got his start at Mondavi in the 90s. And from there, he went to work for a gentleman by the name of Greg Brown at T-Vine Cellars. And Greg Brown was making some fabulous wine in the late 90s and early 2000s. We sold a bunch of Greg's wines back then. And Fernando was responsible for a lot of those wines in the mid. Early 2000s. And he decided to start making his own label in 2002. Now, he used some of the vineyard relationships that Greg had started back in the 90s. One of these vineyard relationships that he hooked up with was with the Frediani folks. Not Frediani, it's Frediani. And the Fredianni Ranch is a story unto itself, because what we have here is some of the greatest vineyard in the Napa Valley, located in Calistoga, in the northern part of Calistoga. It started, I mean, it was purchased in the early 1900s by the Fredianis, and then Al took over one section of the Frediani Ranch, which came to be known as Al Frediani Vineyard. That section was recently sold, two years ago, I think, to the Isley Vineyard, to the Pinot family, who owned Gucci and Chateau Latour and Isley. So that chunk of Frediani was just recently sold. Now, the adjacent chunk of Frediani, Which Al's brother, Gene, purchased in 1948, is still alive and active. And I think it's just the part, just as you cross the Silverado Trail. If I'm not mistaken, Al's part goes up to the Silverado Trail, and then Gene's part starts on the other side of the Silverado Trail. But all contiguous. Contiguous dirt. Now. Fernando had struck up a relationship with the Fredianis in general, and with Jim in particular. And Jim, I think Jim kind of ran both sides of the fence, you know, ran both sides of the Silverado Trail. I think he was farming Al's patches as well as his own patch, if I'm not mistaken. And so we were trying to figure out exactly which side of the Silverado Trail this one came from. Regardless, I think it might be from Al's side, because according to Fernando, these Petite Serral vines were planted in 1935. Which would make it some of the earliest plantings in the Fredianni Ranch. And Gene didn't buy his other side of the street until 1948. And there's an abundance of 1950s and 1970s plantings on the other side of the Silverado Trail of Petite Syrah. Ergo, I think this is from the Fredianni Ranch all in. I think it's from Al Fredianni's side, but I can't be 100% sure. That being said, if it is from Al Fredianni's side, then the grapes that went into this wine, those vineyards have been ripped up. Planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, and that same vineyard is going to be making $700 Cabernet in a few years. Very, very, very special dirt right here. Even if it isn't, it's across the street, which is still very, very, very special dirt and some of the greatest vineyard land in the Napa Valley. So, there's a lot to break down here. We just broke it down for you straight up. I think I did that pretty fast. Was that fast enough? Yeah, good. Okay, yeah. Were you lost? Okay, great. 2013. Still a pup, okay? So Petite Sirah can age like a son of a biscuit eater. And at 13 years old, this wine's fully mature, but it is still going. Still going. A lot of these old blended wines you see from the Napa Valley or even the Sonoma in the 50s, 60s, there's an abundance of Petite Sirah in those wines, and that's what kind of kept them together, this wonderful mutant grape variety that found its way to California in the late 1800s. it was kind of picked as one of the main grape varieties by, you know, these castles were planting vineyards in the late 1800s, post-phylloxera, to take advantage of the burgeoning European market and Petite Syrah found its way home because of its durability, its color, its ruggedness, the fact that it could handle weather conditions. All French oak aging here for 18 months, classic, powerful, grippy, black fruit. But not jammy. Really, really well-focused black fruity. I don't know if the alcohol is in check, but I don't think it's that high. 14.3. Perfect for Petit. That is the pocket for Petit Syrah. And this wine is a piece of the Napa Valley. An historic piece of the Napa Valley. Look up the vineyard. Go on the Historical Vineyard Society pages. All these pages. And you'll see just the relevance of this particular patch. And, again, if it is from Owl's side... These vines are no more, Gene's side still remains and Jim still farms Gene's side. Sorry. Uh, And those, like I said, most of those vines are only 70 to, you know, 50 to 70 years old. But this beautiful patch of Petit Syrah may no longer be in play. And that's really, yeah, I'm kind of torn on that. In the meantime, delicious. Steak, steak, hanger steak, flank, skirt, sanguine styles of steak. And this, yeah, exactly, your teeth rending and cut it with the grain and just make yourself work for it. That's what you serve with this one. Or the picanha, some of those picanhas can be eaten with your hands. This is it. Long story short, here's the deal. 150 cases produced. And somehow he still has like 50 of them. Go figure. 50 bucks at the winery, your price, $19.98. 20 bucks for... Ancient, beautiful Petit Syrah from a great vintage with bottle age, from a top-flight winemaker, you literally can't go wrong. Click down below and buy this wine quickly. I think this will be a hot one. I think people know Petit, and I think they'll be very interested in this wine today. Subscribe to our daily newsletter, and also subscribe to our YouTube channel. It's one of the best in the industry, full of wonderful information, riveting commentary, a dose of comedy, and just pictures of us, well, just kind of sitting around and drinking, which, you know.