2017 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 'SLV' Cabernet Sauvignon

Everyone loves a winner and no Napa Estate can claim the title of Champion of the famous 1976 tasting, "The Judgement of Paris” other than Stag’s Leap. On that historic day which changed the course of Napa wines, vaulting them to the upper echelons of the world's best, Napa became a forced to be reckoned with. Stag's Leap Cabernet from the famous "SLV" vineyard bested some of the world's most sought-after wines, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion just to name a few. This singular event rocked the wine world and four decades later Stag's Leap continues to produce impressive award-winning wines, that are some of the best in the world. Each year the SLV is produced in incredibly limited quantities, the 2017 is no different. This is your chance to recapture the magic of that faithful 1976 tasing in Paris. Get yours while you still can. 

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' original claim to fame was winning the Judgement of Paris in 1976. Standing up to and overcoming the first growths of Bordeaux helped not only establish this winery as a top producer but Napa as a whole. Today, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars has moved in the direction of sustainability, the use of cover crops, soil amendments, and water conservation techniques, the winery is officially deemed "Napa Green"

S.L.V., also known as Stag’s Leap Vineyards, is the winery’s first vineyard. Planted in 1970, this vineyard achieved international fame when three-year-old vines from the 1973 harvest produced a Napa Valley wine that triumphed over some of France’s greatest Bordeaux in a blind tasting among French wine experts in Paris. This history-making Stags Leap District vineyard continues to produce wines with complex black fruit and berry character, spicy intensity, excellent structure, and complexity, promising long life and age-ability. Today, the property encompasses roughly 35 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1.5 acres of Cabernet Franc. The vineyard soil is volcanic and alluvial with good drainage and benefits from warm afternoons and cool evening breezes.

All the vineyard blocks are represented in the 2017 offering, including S.L.V. Block 4 – the “grande dame” of the vineyard – which was planted in 1972. These vines along with blocks on the eastern side of S.L.V., characterized by their fire-borne volcanic soils, give this wine its structure and sense of minerality along with concentrated dark fruit flavors and ripe, elegant tannins. Vines in alluvial soils in the western part of the vineyard add vibrant fruit accent notes and heady aromatics. With this vintage, Winemaker Marcus Notaro used careful barrel selection to marry the unique graphite, dark fruit, and cocoa characters of S.L.V. to the barrel type and toast level. In the latter stages of aging, the barrel lots were blended to create this 2017 offering.