• Rating: 100 out of 100
  • Tasting Fee: $50 or Free w/ 6 bottle purchase
  • Accepts Reservations: Yes
  • Reservation Required: true

Review

Heidi Barrett’s personal label. You would think that the prices would rival all the great titans in Napa. Guess again. Designed with the next generation of wine drinkers in mind, not the CEOs that love buying $500+ bottles, Heidi finds amazing deals on quality fruit and transforms it into exceptional wines at affordable prices for the consumer. Though, she could definitely sell the wines at much higher prices if she wanted to, as evidenced by the Wells Fargo CEO having a La Sirena Private Tasting just before us… La Sirena doesn’t have an allocation or membership program (there’s no need since they sell out of everything), but they do have a mailing list you can sign up for to be notified when the new vintages are released for purchase.

Another reason they can offer wines at reasonable prices is that La Sirena doesn’t have the infrastructure costs (e.g. a tasting room) of other traditional wineries. Instead, when you email their wine ambassador (David Devan) for a tasting appointment, you get options to hold the La Sirena tasting at other wineries that Heidi collaborates with (e.g. Fantesca). Trust me, the quality of the wine makes this coordination all worth it – the wine is just that good. In addition to their quality wine, David is one of the best wine ambassadors in the industry whose storytelling brings the wines to life and leaves you wanting to read Heidi’s biography. If I am lucky enough to become a Wine Ambassador one day, he is who I would want to emulate.

Obligatory selfie photo from my iPhone back when we had the tasting at Jericho Canyon a couple years ago. Sorry that there isn’t a more recent photo. The amazing wine always makes me forget to take pictures.

As I was saying, every time I visit Napa Valley with a group of people, I always go out of my way to introduce them to La Sirena – I will book that appointment first and then build the weekend around it. The tasting menu looks like the following:

Unlike most wineries, I have a story for each wine because of the impression that David left. The Moscato is as floral and amazing on the nose as a Moscato d’Asti, but is bone dry. The Grenache is candied, very pretty and so smooth. It’s also uncommon to find a 100% Grenache in Napa. The Malbec is one of the greatest you’ll taste of that varietal - complex with some terroir character and not overly reliant on the fruit. The TreasuRed is a blend of 7 varietals and 15+ lots of wine that is Example A of Heidi’s blending brilliance (her background is in Chemistry). And the Cabernet Sauvignon is reminiscent of her $2000+ Screaming Eagle wines. She even uses some of the same grapes because she still holds the grape purchasing contracts from her time as winemaker there! For those French wine lovers, the Barrett and Barrett is a collaboration with her husband (Bo Barrett – Winemaker/Chairman at Chateau Montelena) that integrates her balance/body/fruit approach with Bo’s French terroir/age-ability approach.

To summarize, these wines are the steal of Napa Valley – I cannot praise them enough for the Quality/Price ratio. Please make a reservation if you can and tell me that I am wrong about anything I said. Though, I’ll suspect you’ll also jump on the Heidi Barrett bandwagon too.
Rating: 100 out of 100
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