2013 La Sirena Pirate TreasuRed Napa Valley 750 ml

Parker: “One of My Favorite Wines From Barrett”

From Napa’s legendary five-time 100-point winemaker Heidi Barrett comes the big, bold 2013 La Sirena Pirate TreasuRed, overflowing with ripe berry fruit, silky tannins, and spice. Barrett became California’s most famous cult winemaker—Robert Parker’s “First Lady of Wine”—thanks to her work at Dalla Valle and Screaming Eagle, minting Cabernets that were some of the most sought-after in the world. In 1994, she started her own brand La Sirena, a way to let her palate and imagination run free. That led to the creation of the Pirate TreasuRed, a blend of seven Bordeaux and Rhône varieties that is pure concentrated pleasure. In 2013, Vinous’s Antonio Galloni called it “one of the best versions of this wine I can remember tasting.” Parker concurred with equally high praise, naming the 2013 “one of my favorite wines from Barrett.” For a few hours today, 100-point pedigree and rich black fruit for just $64.99 a bottle.

Mention the name Heidi Barrett to any Napa collector and you’ll hear a litany of now-familiar plaudits. “The Queen of Cult Cabernet.” TIME’s “The Wine Diva of Napa Valley.” The woman behind the famous, world-record-breaking 1992 Screaming Eagle that sold for $500,000 at auction. The five perfect scores achieved in the course of just a few years. A list of winemaking gigs and consulting clients that reads like a Best Of list of Napa’s wineries: Dalla Valle, Jones Family, Paradigm Winery, and Grace Family among others.

But it’s Antonio Galloni’s review of her 2013 line-up that really puts a finger on what makes the Pirate TreasuRed so special and such a vivid expression of Barrett’s character: “Heidi Barrett excels with delicious, fun wines that always have an air of whimsical playfulness to them.”

The TreasuRed is a wine that more than any other epitomizes that spirit of “whimsical playfulness.” It was, by Barrett’s telling, practically created by accident in 2007 when she set out to create one type of blend and ended up with something entirely different than she expected—and far superior. The use of seven grapes, from Cabernet Sauvignon to Syrah, inspired her to think of the ancient navigational phrase “the seven seas,” ultimately leading to the tongue-in-cheek pirate theme of the wine’s naming and packaging.   

Barrett’s reputation as a master blender—she compares it to adding layers of color to a painting—is longstanding, hearkening back to her earliest roots. Her mother was an artist and her father, Dick Peterson, was a leading winemaker of the day who worked with seminal enologist André Tchelistcheff, exposing Barrett to the industry at an early age. After getting a degree at U.C. Davis, she was hired as a winemaker at age 25 at Buehler Vineyards. From there her ascent was rapid, going from Dalla Valle to Screaming Eagle and on to her esteemed consulting career and La Sirena.

The magical 2013 Napa vintage yielded what the critics are calling the best release of this cuvée yet—a happy marriage of her incredible winemaking prowess and free-spirited personality.