It was a cool, overcast, but at least not rainy January morning in Napa Valley. I was forced to alter my route due to downed trees down a landslide closing a portion of Silverado Road, but I had made it to my destination. The good news at that time was the five-year Napa Valley drought had been broken. The bad news, if there was any, was the amount of rain that fell in such a short time as the ‘atmospheric river’ drenched the Valley and caused extensive water-related damage. But even with the damage I heard no one complaining about the sheets and sheets of rain that had been falling the previous several days.

My destination that morning was Titus Vineyards, located at 2971 Silverado Trail North, outside of St. Helena. There were a couple of reasons they were on my list for a tasting and visit. First, I knew I enjoyed the wines of Chappellet Vineyards up on Pritchard Hill so I figured I had best allot some time during my visit to try the wines of Titus, since Phillip Corallo-Titus, the winemaker at Chappellet since 1990, was also half of the winemaking team at Titus along with his brother, Eric. I wanted to see what Phillip, Eric, and their team were crafting with the grapes at their own place. Just a gut decision, but a smart one, too!

I’ll talk more in-depth about my visit to Titus Vineyards in a later post so stay tuned for that, but now back to that January morning.

I’d made my appointment for my tasting and I was quick to find out the team at Titus had done their homework before I even showed up. They knew exactly what I had purchased via their DTC online presence and had set up my tasting based on that history. Near the end of my tasting the staff asked if I’d like to try their Petit Verdot. At that point, knowing it only as one of the traditional Bordeaux-style blending grapes, I hesitated. I began considering how I could say ‘no thank you’ politely. My host was quicker than me and catching my hesitation, my glass was poured with the promise ‘since you like our Merlot, love our Cabernets, and really love our Lot 1, I really believe you will find this to your liking.” She was so spot on I bought a case before I was done with my tasting glass!

Here was a grape I hadn’t tasted as a single, bottled varietal before and I was in love with it from my very first glass! I was taught, when you taste a wine, you go eyes first, then nose, and finally mouth, but I know it was the aroma of that Petit Verdot, which sold me first. Nicely complex and each whiff sent me on a wine journey in my mind! The color was marvelously deep and dark. The taste was full, rich, and so wonderfully complex I was simply smitten.

I couldn’t wait for that case to meet me back at the Cellar so I could begin to introduce other family and friends to this wonderful grape. So far so good with that too. I have yet to open a bottle and not have everyone enjoy it!

Unfortunately there are a few drawbacks to Petit Verdot. Most of what is planted is used for blending, it is late to ripen, and can often be impacted by shatter. Combine these with the fact the grape itself is far lesser known than most and finding Petit Verdot as a varietal can be a challenge.

This is evidenced by the fact even though it is my favorite wine, it is only the third most held wine in our cellar at 272 bottles. Believe me this is not due to a lack of trying on my part, rather it shows its relative obscurity.

Our holdings by vintage: 2010 Jarvis. 2011 Ballentine Fig Tree Vineyard, Prescott Ashe The Palace, and Jarvis. 2012 Barboursville, Michael Mondavi Emblem, Jeff Runquist, and Titus. 2013 Anomaly, Clos du Val, and Titus. 2014 Clos du Val, Del Dotto Piazza, Michael Mondavi Emblem, and Titus. 2015 V. Sattui Vittorio’s Estate. Plus we have bought futures for the 2016 vintage from V. Sattui.

In the immortal, marketing words of Life cereal, “try it, you’ll like it”!