Drinking a Lost Piece of Napa Valley History

Voces Petite Sirah Napa Valley 2013 Link to the wine: https://www.winex.com/voces-petite-sirah-napa-valley-2013.html Join our Daily Email Offer List: https://cdn.forms-content.sg-form.com/f3da488a-d10b-11ee-94a3-62718bdc6118 Every once in a while, somebody walks through the door with a bottle that makes us stop and say: What the hell is that? That's exactly how we discovered the 2013 Voces Cellars Napa Valley Petite Sirah. A broker friend pulled it out of his bag during a recent tasting. We'd never seen the label before, but three things immediately caught our attention. It was Petite Sirah from Napa Valley, it was from the outstanding 2013 vintage, and it already had 13 years of bottle age. Then we started digging into where it came from. That's when this became a much bigger story. Voces is the personal label of Fernando Candelario, a veteran Napa winemaker whose career began at Robert Mondavi in the 1990s before working alongside Greg Brown at T-Vine Cellars. Fernando launched Voces in 2002, drawing upon vineyard relationships developed during those formative years in Napa. One of the most important was with the Frediani family in Calistoga. For Napa history buffs, that name matters. The Frediani family's vineyards represent some of the valley's most historically significant old-vine ground. According to Fernando, the Petite Sirah vines behind this wine were planted in 1935, meaning the fruit came from vines approaching 80 years old when this wine was harvested in 2013. There is some mystery surrounding exactly which portion of the historic Frediani property supplied the fruit. If it came from the section later associated with Alfred Frediani, those particular Petite Sirah vines may no longer exist, with portions of that coveted land having subsequently been replanted to Cabernet Sauvignon. The neighboring Frediani holdings still contain important old-vine Petite Sirah, so we can't definitively tell you which side produced this bottle. What we can tell you is that this comes from an extraordinary piece of northern Napa Valley vineyard land and represents a style of Napa that's becoming increasingly difficult to find. And Petite Sirah was made for this. Long before Cabernet Sauvignon became synonymous with Napa Valley, Petite Sirah played an important role in California wine. Its deep color, formidable tannins, natural concentration, and almost ridiculous ability to age made it invaluable to generations of winemakers. Open well-made bottles from decades past and Petite Sirah is often one of the grapes responsible for keeping those wines alive. The 2013 Voces shows exactly why. After 18 months in French oak and more than a decade in bottle, it remains wonderfully powerful and focused. Dark blackberry, black plum, cassis, savory spice, earth, leather, and subtle floral notes lead into a dense palate with that unmistakable Petite Sirah grip. Yet this isn't some jammy, overblown monster. At approximately 14.3% alcohol, everything remains beautifully controlled, with mature complexity beginning to emerge around a core of remarkably fresh black fruit. And let's not forget the vintage. 2013 was a tremendous year for Napa Valley, giving the wine the concentration and structure needed for serious aging. Combine that vintage with ancient vines, a talented Napa winemaker, and a grape famous for longevity, and it's hardly surprising that this bottle is still firing on all cylinders. Now consider the economics. Only 150 cases were produced. The winery price was around $50. Our price is $19.98. Twenty bucks for a 13-year-old Napa Valley Petite Sirah, potentially from vines planted in 1935, from a great vintage, with impeccable winemaking pedigree and a connection to one of Calistoga's most historically significant vineyard properties. This isn't simply an inexpensive bottle of mature Napa wine. It's a little piece of Napa Valley history you can actually pull the cork on.