Stag's Leap Wine Cellars [tasting room & production area]

USA / California / Yountville / Silverado Trail, 5766
 winery, production, wine tasting room
5766 Silverado Trail
Napa CA 94558
(707)944-2020
www.cask23.com/

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is considered one of Napa Valley's first-growths. They were founded by Warren Winiarski and his family in 1970 and are best known for thier estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignons — CASK 23, S.L.V., and FAY. Thier wines have become some of the most highly regarded and collected wines worldwide. They are fashioned to express classic elegance, structure, and ageability, and to reflect the finest in Napa Valley reds.

On May 24, 1976, a wine tasting took place in Paris that changed the world's view of California wines forever. Curious to see how these newcomers would fare against French wines made from the same kind of grapes, he arranged a blind wine tasting in celebration of the American Bicentennial activities in Paris. The French tasters chosen for the event had impeccable professional credentials.

The tasting was blind, with the identities of the wines concealed and the labels revealed only after the jury of nine tasters had voted its order of preference.

The unthinkable happened. Winiarski's 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon - his first vintage produced with grapes from vines a mere three years old - was judged the best. The Cabernet had bested four top-ranked Bordeaux, including first-growths Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Haut-Brion. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from California bested its French counterparts.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stag's_Leap_Wine_Cellars
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   38°23'57"N   122°19'28"W

Comments

  • Steven Spurrier, an Englishman with a wine shop in Paris is who set up the tasting and selected the wines and judges. After the results were revealed (with just one reporter, for Time, in attendance) the French tried to discredit the entire event.
This article was last modified 11 years ago