Appellation · United States
Stags Leap District
A small AVA under a line of volcanic palisades, whose Cabernet beat the Médoc first growths at the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with black cherry, violet and cedar over unusually supple tannin. Perfumed rather than powerful, by Napa standards.
About Stags Leap District
The Stags Leap District is a small AVA on the eastern side of southern Napa, beneath a line of volcanic outcrops that gives it its name.
A 1973 Cabernet from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars won the red flight at the 1976 Paris tasting, beating Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Montrose. Whatever one makes of a single blind tasting as evidence, its effect on how American wine was regarded was immediate and permanent.
The style is consistently described as softer and more perfumed than Rutherford or Oakville — an "iron fist in a velvet glove" — with the same ripeness and less obvious tannic weight.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Stags Leap District AVA
- Type
- American Viticultural Area (AVA)
- Set by
- Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
- Recognised
- 1989
- Regulates
- Origin only. It sets no rules about varieties, yields, ageing or winemaking.
Only where the grapes were grown, plus the percentage that must come from the named area. An AVA sets no varietal, yield, ageing or winemaking rules whatsoever — the single most commonly misunderstood fact about US wine labels.
Grapes
Wines from here
Climate
- Temperature
- Warm
- Day–night swing
- Wide
Cool air comes up from San Pablo Bay in the afternoon while the volcanic palisades behind hold and radiate heat. The result is warm days and sharply cooler evenings than the valley floor further north.
Stags Leap District has a warm climate with mediterranean and maritime influences. Nights are markedly cooler than days. Cool air comes up from San Pablo Bay in the afternoon while the volcanic palisades behind hold and radiate heat. The result is warm days and sharply cooler evenings than the valley floor further north.
Vintage variation
Vintage matters little
Reliable sunshine, low disease pressure and — often — irrigation to smooth out what rainfall does not deliver. The grapes ripen every year.
- Maritime influence. Nearby water lengthens the growing season and brings cloud and rain with it. Ripening is slower and less certain, and the spread between years is wider.
- Mediterranean influence. Hot dry summers and reliable sunshine. Ripeness is rarely the question.
Derived from the climate above, not from anyone’s view of particular years. Why there are no vintage scores here.
These are influences on how a wine turns out, not determinants of it. Picking date, yield, vine age and every winemaking decision sit between the climate and the glass.
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).
Try with steak, ribeye steak or roast chicken.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Oakville — The Napa AVA with the highest concentration of famous Cabernet vineyards, immediately south of Rutherford.
- Rutherford — The mid-valley bench that produced Napa’s most celebrated Cabernet Sauvignon, and the source of the phrase "Rutherford dust".
- Carneros — The cool, windy flatland at the southern end of Napa and Sonoma, straddling both counties, and California’s best-established site for Pinot Noir and sparkling wine.
Sources
Sources consulted
- American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) — Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), US Department of the Treasury
- Napa Valley Vintners — Napa Valley Vintners