Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Stags Leap Wine Cellar is one of the most famous names in the world of wine, associated as it is with the legendary Judgment of Paris tasting in 1976. Taking place to celebrate the US bicentennial, this blind tasting saw the best Californian wines pitted against A-list estates from France. Napa Chardonnays went up against Grand Cru Burgundy, Napa Cabs fronted up against the prestigious châteaux from Bordeaux. And once the scores were totted up, the highest-scoring red, as voted for by critics from all around the world, was… Stag’s Leap SLV 1976 Estate Cabernet. It was a result that reverberated around the world and instantly put Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars on the map. Doubtless the vanquished owners of Mouton-Rothschild, Haut Brion and Leoville-Las-Cases would have been even more miffed had they known that their conqueror had only bought its vineyard six years earlier!

Although Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars makes some wines with fruit taken from across Napa Valley, the soul of the winery is its estate vineyards in the viticultural area with which it shares its name. Organically certified since 2024, Stag’s Leap Vineyard, Fay Vineyard and Cask 23 (made of the best fruit from both) are intense, silky wines, often scoring in the high-90s – even 100 points – with critics, who value them just as highly as their predecessors half a century earlier…