INSIDER'S PICK: 2017 GREEN & RED VINEYARD PETITE SIRAH TIP TOP VINEYARD NAPA VALLEY $34.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

For fans of California wines. Green & Red represents an important bridge between the historic and modern, from the pre-WWII era family vineyards to the explosion of Napa Valley 'Wine Country' after the 1976 Judgement of Paris wine tasting. Founder Jay Hemingway was a sculpture professor at U.C. Berkeley in the 60s, and part of the blooming culture of that era that also included an appreciation for local food and wine. In 1969 he purchased a property in the hills of Chiles Valley above Lake Hennessey, at one time part of an 1880s era vineyard called Rancho Catacula but at this time long overgrown and forgotten. Although a single vine from those original plantings still remains, Jay planted new parcels of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah to produce their first commercial vintage in 1977. Their success with the varieties also helped to inspire renewed passion for the old vineyards that had survived for so long and could still be rescued, bringing now-famous friends in like Robert Biale, Joel Peterson (Ravenswood) and Larry Turley into the wine world. Zinfandel is the most prolific and popular variety, Petite Sirah is the backbone of many great blends, and on its own the inky tannic character will put some hair on your chest (even if you don't want it sometimes). There's only two acres planted in the Tip Top Vineyard, one of their first and highest elevation vineyards, so getting some of this is a real treat. Rugged and darkly spiced, this wine has a long track record of evolving over time into a refined, well structured wine similar in texture to a fine Cabernet but with a wilder red berry and Californian spice to it. Open it now if you aren't patient enough, and plan to give it a LOT of decanting time to tame the tannins and get at the room-filling aromas and inky fruit, and enjoy your taste of history.

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