Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
A Frenchman working in Napa Valley, Christophe Paubert has gone a little crazy over petite sirah, including it in a number of his cabernet-based wines, while continuing the winery’s historic focus on the grape in this varietal bottling. He takes a markedly elegant approach to a grape that is often aggressively extracted and overtly tannic, presenting a zesty wine with perfumed notes to its black fruit and a stony feel to its tannins. Give this hours in a decanter if you open it now; it will be best with ten to 12 years of age.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Petite Sirah, which is their basic introductory model, so to speak, is a sensational wine in its own right. Opaque purple-colored, loads of white flowers, blueberries and blackberries are present in this wine, which should drink well for 20-25 years.
Rating: 91+
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.