2017 Mending Wall Petite Sirah Napa Valley

VIN95 The 2016 Petite Sirah Palisades Vineyard is going to need a number of years before it starts to drink well. Inky, plush and concentrated to the core, the Palisades has a lot to offer. But it is also a wine for readers who can be patient and who love Petite.

Estate Notes: Dark as night, aromatically explosive and intense from start to finish, the 2016 Mending Wall Petite Syrah is everything one would want and hope for from the variety and vintage. Known for a being long term cellar candidate, the silky and ripe tannin profile of the vintage make this wine to be enjoyed today, tomorrow and 20+ years from now.

Since the late ’90’s Thomas Brown had been making a number of his clients wines at a somewhat dated facility on Howell Mountain. Around 2010, he and Frank Dotzler (Outpost) along with Mark Pulido and Donna Walker (Pulido-Walker) decided to look for land in Napa Valley to build a new, state of the art facility to replace what was becoming a cumbersome work environment. In 2013 they purchased 21 acres just north of Crystal Springs Road on the border between St. Helena and Calistoga, built what was to become the Mending Wall winery and opened in 2015. The name Mend- ing Wall is taken from the title of a Robert Frost poem that talks about being good neighbors and what it takes to maintain these relationships.