Winemaker Notes
Seven miles north of Napa, lies their century-old, 240-acre estate. The Leap Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of the most expressive barrels from select blocks on the historic property. With exceptionally well-drained volcanic soils, these blocks produce a long-lived wine that exemplifies both richness and elegance and speaks to the unique terrior of the Stags Leap District.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 The Leap Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is made up of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon with 6% Petite Sirah and 2% Petit Verdot aged in 50% new French oak for 20 months. It has a very deep garnet-purple color and reveals notions of crème de cassis, Black Forest cake and redcurrant jelly with suggestions of camphor, forest floor, pencil lead and cigar boxes with a touch of rose hip tea. The palate is full-bodied with a firm, grainy backbone and loads of red fruit sparks lifting the rich, black fruit layers to a long invigorating finish.
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Tasting Panel
The plum nose of this concentrated and complex wine exudes an intense ripeness. Stylish, fresh, and balanced, it’s the work of talented French winemaker Christophe Paubert.
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.