Dunn Vineyards, “Happy Accident” Petit Sirah-Cabernet

Having the Napa Valley right in our back yard means we occasionally get access to wines that aren’t put into regular commercial distribution. Oftentimes these are tiny-production, “mailing-list-only” wines, which is what today’s Petit Sirah-Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Dunn Vineyards might have become. But once we heard its backstory, we insisted on getting some to share with our subscribers.As second-generation vintner Mike Dunn describes it, the Dunn crew was in the middle of bottling their Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon when the tank they were draining began to run low. Alerted to this, Mike hopped off the forklift he was on and quickly changed the hookup to another tank, without immediately noticing that the tank contained a Petite Sirah from his heirloom vineyard next to the winery (more on that below). When he realized his error, he shut down the line and identified the bottles that had become Petite Sirah-Cabernet Sauvignon blends. And that’s what we have here. I can’t give