Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon is largely in the same ballpark, although it’s slightly darker and more concentrated. Full-bodied aromas and flavors of red and black fruits, tobacco, spice, camphor, and chocolate oak, as well as a touch of minerality, define the bouquet, and it has ripe, polished tannins and a great finish. It’s another knockout bottle of wine readers will be thrilled to have in the cellar. As with the 2012, drink bottles over the coming decade.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate exhibits graphite, blackberry and cassis, chocolate and a touch of mineral in a full-bodied, layered and impressively pure style. It’s a big wine for Stags Leap (15.4% alcohol), but gorgeously pure, with everything well-knit into a sensational equilibrium. This is only a baby, but promises to hit its peak in 7-10 years and last 25-30.
Rating: 95+ -
James Suckling
So much stone, dried mushroom, wet earth, forest flower and light prune aromas follow through to a rich palate. Full, firm and intense.
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Wine Spectator
A toasty, charry oak presence dominates here, overshadowing the subtle fruit and floral nuances as well as the core of dark berry and mocha. A big wine. Best from 2018 through 2030.
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.