A California-bred French red with a color so deep it has a fan club

Petite sirah is a rare grape of French origin that is barely cultivated at all in France, where it’s known as Durif. Small amounts are also planted in Australia under that name, but California is where this variety shines and where it continues to grow in both popularity and planted area.

Petite sirah’s proponents range from renowned winemakers who use it to add color, tannin, and flavor to red blends of more famous grapes, to avid tipplers who appreciate the bold flavor and inky purple-black color found in varietal wines like this one. There’s even a fan club for its most ardent admirers, called P.S. I Love You.

Petite sirah is a direct descendant of two French grapes: syrah from the Rhône Valley and peloursin from the alpine Jura region, both of which feature small, thick-skinned berries. Their love child doubles down on both traits, ensuring there is less water and more dark peel in every ton of fruit. After fermentation, this results in an unusually deep color and high flavor concentration in the wine, for the same reason that espresso is stronger and darker than drip coffee.

In the glass, petite sirah looks almost opaque, which is one reason why it has become an essential secret ingredient in many of Napa Valley’s most prestigious red blends, where it deepens color and increases resistance to oxidation. But when petite sirah is vinified and bottled on its own — as we see in this bargain bottling from one of the variety’s original pioneers — the grape’s appealing flavors of stewed blueberries and pipe tobacco can be quite seductive for fans of “big reds.” The same can also be said of its decadently velvety mouthfeel.

California; 14.5% ABV

PLCB Item #9257 — on sale for $10.99 through April 5 (regularly $13.99)

Also available at: Moorestown Super Buy Rite in Moorestown ($9.49; moorestownbuyrite.com), Canal’s Liquors in Berlin ($9.49; canalsofberlin.com), and Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del. ($8.99; totalwine.com)