Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a dense, juicy and satisfying wine from start to finish, featuring finely textured, soft tannins around remarkable structure. Cinnamon and clove persist through wilder elements of pencil lead and ripe cassis, showing the appellation's propensity for hitting you from one side with power, and from the other side, ever so discreetly, grace.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A very impressive 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from Malk Family Vineyards, both this vintage and the subsequent 2013 spent 20 months in 75% new French oak. The color is a dense ruby/purple, the wine shows plenty of classic crème de cassis, Christmas fruitcake and spice box. It has pure flavors, a full-bodied mouthfeel, but sweet tannin and a long, layered mouthfeel. This is impressive and realistically priced. Moreover, it should drink well for another 10-15 years.
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James Suckling
A full and rich red with sweet plum and berry character. Round tannins and a flavorful finish. A little jammy. But still outstanding quality.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Legend has it that quick and nimble stags would escape the indigenous hunters of southern Napa Valley through the landmark palisades that sit just northeast of the current city of Napa. As a result, the area was given the name, Stags Leap. While its grape-growing history dates back to the mid-1800s, winemaking didn’t really take off until the mid-1970s after a small but pivotal blind tasting called the Judgement of Paris.
When a 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon won first place against its high-profile Bordeaux contenders, like Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion, international attention to the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley escalated rapidly.
The vineyards in this one-of-a-kind wine growing region receive hot afternoon air reflecting off of its eastern palisade formation. In combination with the cool evening breezes from the San Pablo Bay just south, this becomes an optimal environment for grape growing. While many varieties could thrive here, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot dominate with virtually no others, save for a spot or two of Syrah.
Stags Leap soils—eroded volcanic and old river sediments—encourage well established root systems and result in complex, terroir-driven wines. Stags Leap District reds have a distinct sour cherry and black berry character with baking spice and dried earth aromas, and supple tannins.