Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine's dark plum flavor is completely dry, with savory herb notes in the background. It’s reduced when first poured, needing hours in a decanter or several years in the cellar to come around. With air, the juiciness of the fruit comes to the fore, a sleek Napa red with rich balsamic notes and earthy, plum-skin tannins. Age it to serve with slow-braised short ribs.
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Tasting Panel
Dark and juicy with bright plum and berry fruit; big but not overpowering; nicely balanced, ripe and tangy; long and actually showing finesse.
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Wine Enthusiast
There are small percentages of Syrah, Grenache, Carignane, Mourvèdre and Viognier in this Petite. Combined, they add to a greater whole of inky, coffee-mocha flavor around soft, restrained tannins. Blackberry and blueberry fruit also figure prominently, as good as your grandmother’s pies.
A fashionable country resort in the mid-twentieth century, popular with Hollywood due to its 1892 stone Manor House and historic gardens, legends of bootleggers and gangsters, ghosts and gypsies, Stags' Leap has been home to three major family groups up through the modern revitalization of the winery that began in the 1970s.
Stags Leap Manor, as it was called in the 1920s, was known as one of the prominent country retreats in the Napa Valley at a time when resort and spa business was big. In addition to lodging and dining, amenities included lawn tennis, swimming, horseback riding, children's activities, golf, music, cards, a library, and Napa Valley wines and liquors (prior to and after Prohibition).
An intimate valley within the greater Napa Valley, Stags Leap is a place of natural beauty, storied buildings and gardens, a lively history, and a reputation for elegant wines showing finesse and intensity.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.