2013 Kind Cellars Petite Sirah Henry Brothers Vineyard Howell Mountain 750 ml

A 168mph Fastball ... and an Unheard of Rise to Cult Royalty

On April 1, 1985, Sports Illustrated published a cover story about a walk-on at the New York Mets training camp, a pitcher who had already been deemed unhittable. Headlined “The Curious Case of Sidd Finch,” author George Plimpton reported that Hayden Siddhartha “Sidd” Finch had been raised in an English orphanage, had learned yoga in Tibet, and could throw a fastball 168 m.p.h.!

Finch wore just one shoe while pitching, a heavy hiker’s boot, Plimpton wrote. He threw his blazing fastball with pinpoint accuracy without warming up. The Mets scouting report gave Finch a “9” on fastball velocity and control — on a scale whose highest score was supposed to be “8.”

The photos accompanying Plimpton’s story featured Finch with a young Lenny Dykstra and chatting with Mets pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.

Sidd Finch captured the minds of talk radio and TV talk show hosts across the country and became national news. The Mets already had Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling at the top of rotation. With the addition of Finch, who could pitch on just a day or two of rest, the World Series had seemingly already been decided.

Then, as many of us remember, a few days later Sports Illustrated acknowledged that Sidd Finch was a figment of Plimpton’s imagination, an April Fool’s prank that had shocked the nation.

Why tell this story today? Simple. Had we not met Dave Yorgensen in the fall of 2013, we may well have taken this Robert Parker quote as a journalistic prank of Sidd Finch proportion: “I do not know who these people are, but they knocked it out of the park with both their reds and whites." Alas, nothing could be further from the case.

Yorgensen, who was making wine at O’Brien at the time, had crafted his first mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah from the great 2012 vintage. The Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve was drawn off the Henry Brothers Ranch on top of Howell Mountain, not far from Dave and Wendy Yorgensen’s home. The Syrah was absolutely staggering, comprised entirely of small-berry clusters grown on tiny Lampyridae Vineyard at 2,150 feet on Mount Veeder. Largely unknown prior to 2012, Kind Cellars’ anonymity quickly evaporated after Parker chimed in — 99 points for the Cabernet, 95 for the Syrah.

Things didn’t slow down in 2013. Once again, Dave earned 99 points for his Henry Brothers Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon. The Syrah got better still — 96 points — and Dave’s first vintage of Petite Sirah, drawn from the same rocky, volcanic soils at Henry Brothers Ranch, received 94+ points from Parker, who called it a “blockbuster of massive extraction.”

Never before have we offered a Petite Sirah for anywhere near today’s price. Our most expensive to date cost $20, or about a third of what the 2013 Kind Cellars Petite Sirah Henry Brothers Ranch is available for today. Why take the leap now? This monumental achievement off Howell Mountain is simply too good not to.

Not purple, but JET-BLACK to the rim. Mulberry, black raspberry, black currant, and spice leap from the glass. Full bodied and intoxicatingly rich, endowed with what Robert Parker calls “gorgeous notes of creosote, charcoal, blackberries, earth.” The massively concentrated, ripe-fruit core is supported by huge but pliable tannins that are sweet, grippy, and lasting. There’s no need to rush this one, it should drink well for the next 30 to 40 years!

Had we not tried it ourselves, we would’ve surely put Yorgensen’s Petite Sirah in the category of Sidd Finch — too good to be true, a figment of our imagination. But we have. And it’s worth it. Did we mention it’s sold out in the rest of the country? $65 today ONLY on WineAccess.