2018 Stags' Leap Winery Petite Sirah Napa Valley 750 ml

Stags’ Leap Winery is as synonymous with Petite Sirah as Caymus is with Cabernet—and nobody does it better. 

From their own block of 95-year old hillside vines—plus fruit from the top growers of inky old-vine Petite Sirah they’ve tapped for almost 50 years—they craft the quintessential example of what Parker once called “California’s most underrated varietal.” This brooding, full-bodied, ripe red wine can compete with Cabernet in longevity, and the 2018, from an all-time great season that Wine Spectator rated 99 points, is just entering its prime, ready for a thick grilled steak or another few years in the cellar. 

Napa Cabernet grabs the headlines and huge prices, but this bottle shows why but the most knowledgeable, dyed-in-the-wool Napa Valley wine lovers have always been (and will always be) nuts about Petite Sirah. But because Cabernet is so profitable, you’ll search a long time for any Petite Sirah vines planted in Napa Valley after the 1980s.

Stags’ Leap Winery founder Carl Doumani took the reins of this storied old chateau in the Stag’s Leap palisades in 1970. This was the variety’s heyday, and Doumani quickly gained a reputation as one of the best producers of Petite Sirah. Over 30 years later, Robert Parker remarked, “Stags Leap Winery first made its reputation with its Petite Sirahs.”

Winemaker Ludovic Dervin gave this 2018 a short fermentation to avoid extracting too much tannin from the burly grapes, then rested it for 14 months in 25% new American oak barrels, allowing the inherent spiciness of the oak and wine to integrate seamlessly. It’s a powerful, opulent wine, and proof that you don’t need to pay $100 and up to collect great Napa classics.