Stag's Leap Wine

Cellars

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a winery

founded by Warren Winiarski in 1970 and
based in the Stags Leap District of Napa
Valley, California. The winery was sold to a
joint venture by Chateau Ste. Michelle of
Woodinville, Washington, and Marchesi
Antinori Srl of Italy for $185 million in
August 2007. It is 50% owned by the
tobacco/food conglomerate Altria.
 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Location Napa, California, USA

Coordinates 38.399343°N
122.325543°W

Appellation Stags Leap AVA

Other labels Hawk Crest

Founded 1970

First vintage 1972

Key people Warren Winiarski,

founder
Marcus Notaro,
winemaker

Parent company Chateau Ste. Michelle

 and Antinori

Cases/yr 130,000

Known for Cabernet Sauvignon

Varietals Cabernet Sauvignon,

Chardonnay, Merlot,
Sauvignon blanc

Website www.cask23.com

History

Stainless steel fermenting containers that are part of

the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
Warren Winiarski was introduced to wine
while on a year-long trip to Italy studying
the work of Niccolò Machiavelli. After
returning to Chicago, he found an interest
in wine and in the early 1960s began to
experiment with making his own wine at
home. He moved to the Napa Valley with
his wife and children in 1968, and took up
a job with Chateau Souverain. Following
this, he moved to work at the newly started
Robert Mondavi Winery.[1][2]

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars was founded in

1970 after Winiarski purchased a 44-acre
block of land for under $200,000 that was
situated next to the vineyard owned by
modern Napa Valley Cabernet
winegrowing pioneer Nathan Fay.
Winiarski decided on purchasing land in
the region after tasting a homemade wine
from Nathan Fay's vineyard, after tasting
the wine Winarski stated “I said to myself,
Eureka! That’s it. This wine satisfied what I
hoped was possible in the Napa Valley. It
had not only regional character but also
elements of classic or universal
character.”[3]

The purchased plot was planted to prune

trees, cherries and walnuts as well as a
small amount of Petite Sirah and Alicante
Bouschet, these were replaced with
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot vines and
the vineyard was renamed to "Stag's Leap
Vineyard" or "S.L.V".[1][3][4]

The first vintage produced from the new

vineyard was in 1972 and was produced in
a rented facility.[2] Winiarski was in charge
of making the wine, with assistance from
Andre Tchelistcheff. The second vintage—
the first that was produced at the estate
and in commercial quantities— was from
1973. This '73 vintage was entered into
and subsequently rated the top red wine at
the now historic Judgment of Paris in
1976, launching the winery into the
international spotlight.[4]
Following this achievement, the winery
began to expand its land holdings,
purchasing the neighboring "Fay" Cabernet
Sauvignon vineyard in 1986, which nearly
doubled the vineyard size owned by the
estate, and a Chardonnay vineyard named
"Arcadia" from Mike Grgich in 1996. Grgich
was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena
in the early 1970s and he produced the
counterpart winning Californian
Chardonnay at the 1976 Judgment of
Paris.[5][6]

A lawsuit initiated by Winiarski and a

counter-suit filed by Carl Doumani, owner
of Stags' Leap Winery, was decided in
1986 by the California Supreme Court. The
two wineries were founded in the same
year, and both claimed first use of the
name "Stag's Leap". The court decided
that the wineries were named after the
area, so both were allowed to use the
name. The judgment included a provision
that Winiarski would keep the apostrophe
before the s in his winery name, where
Doumani would use the apostrophe after
the s.[1]

Winiarski and Doumani became friendly

after the lawsuit was concluded, releasing
a 1985 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon with
an equal percentage of grapes from each
estate and named "Accord". They also
worked together in an attempt to stop the
Stags Leap American Viticultural Area
from being created, but they were
unsuccessful and the AVA was ratified as
a sub-region of the Napa Valley AVA in
1989.[1]

In August 2007, Winiarski sold the winery

to Chateau Ste. Michelle and Marchesi
Antinori Srl for a reported value of
185 million US dollars. The sale included
the winery facilities, as well as the SLV and
Fay vineyards. The Arcadia vineyard was
kept by the Winiarski family and will
continue to provide fruit to the winery on a
contract basis. Winiarski, 79 at the time of
the sale, was looking to retire and his
family members were not in a position to
continue running the business. Winiarski
agreed to continue as a part-time advisor
for three years following the sale.[7][8][9]

Judgment of Paris and

subsequent competitions
The winery achieved significant
international recognition in 1976, four
years after its establishment, at the
Judgment of Paris where its 1973 vintage
Cabernet Sauvignon won first place
among ten top French and California red
wines in a blind taste test by leading
French wine experts.[7][10] The French
wines tasted were prestigious first and
second growths wines from the 1970 and
1971 vintage from Château Haut-Brion,
Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château
Leoville Las Cases and Château
Montrose.[3]

The result of the tasting has been

described by Decanter as "a victory that
put California on the winemaking map, and
established Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars as a
global superstar",[7] and by Paul Lukacs as
"most important, it enabled not only the
United States but also Australia, South
America, and the rest of the New World to
emerge as legitimate sources of
increasingly superior wines."[3]

A bottle of 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Cabernet Sauvignon was placed into the
Smithsonian National Museum of
American History collection in 1996 as a
result of placing first in this competition
and to reflect the impact that the
achievement had on the United States
wine industry.[1][11][12]

The bottle was also included in the book,

The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101
Objects, by Richard Kurin, the Smithsonian
Institution’s Under Secretary for History,
Art, and Culture. Other items chosen from
among the collections for this historic list
included Neil Armstrong’s space suit,
Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, Charles
Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, and Lewis &
Clark’s compass.”[13][14]

The San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978

was a re-tasting of the same wines 20
months after the Paris event. Stag's Leap
again won first place with a different set of
judges.[15]

At the French Culinary Institute Wine

Tasting of 1986, held ten years after Paris,
Stag's Leap received sixth place, and in the
Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986 it
won fourth place.[16]

In 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th

Anniversary tasting with the same wines
and vintages tasted at the original
Judgment of Paris competition, Stag's
Leap achieved second place.[17]

Vineyards

Vineyards at Stag's Leap in 1990

The "S.L.V" (Stag's Leap Vineyard) was the
initial vineyard owned by the estate. It
consists of 35 acres of Cabernet
Sauvignon and 1 acre of Merlot. This
vineyard was the source of the grapes that
produced the wine that won the 1976
Judgment of Paris.[5][6]

The "Fay" vineyard was purchased in 1986.

This was the vineyard that originally
inspired Winiarski to make wine in this
area. It is the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon
vineyard in the area and consists of 66
acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and half an
acre of Petit Verdot.[5][6]
Arcadia is a 128-acre vineyard near Mount
George in the Napa Valley. The vineyard
was purchased in 1996 from Mike Grgich.
It was retained by the Winiarski family
after the sale of the estate in 2007. It still
provides grapes for the estate on a
contract basis.[5][7]

Wines

Bottles of Stag's Leap Cask 23 Cabernet Sauvignon

The flagship red wine is named "Cask 23"
and this is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon
fruit from the SLV and Fay vineyards. The
first vintage of this wine was produced in
1974, after Winiarski noticed that a
specific cask, numbered 23, stood out
from the other casks produced that year. It
is not produced every vintage, but only in
years that are viewed by the winemaking
team as producing excellent quality
fruit.[1][4][18]

Other wines in the top level "Estate &

Single-Vineyard Collection" include two
Cabernet Sauvignon single vineyard wines,
from the "S.L.V" and "Fay" vineyards, as
well as a Chardonnay from the "Arcadia"
vineyard.[18]

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars produces a mid-

level range under the designation "Napa
Valley Collection". These wines are made
from estate owned vineyards as well as
purchased grapes from other vineyards in
the Napa Valley. Wines in this range
include a "Artemis" Cabernet Sauvignon,
Merlot, "Karia" Chardonnay and a
Sauvignon blanc.[18]

A range of second wines are produced at a

lower price point, under the brand name
"Hawk Crest". This label was started in
1974.[2][5][19]

See also
California wine
Wine competitions
Judgement of Paris (wine)
Warren Winiarski

References
1. "Sf Gate - The Winiarski Way" .
Articles.sfgate.com. 2004-04-01. Retrieved
2011-01-30.
2. FRANK J. PRIAL (1988-07-06). "NY Times
- Wine talk" . Napa Valley (Calif):
Select.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
3. Lukacs, Paul (2005). The Great Wines of
America: The Top Forty Vintners, Vineyards,
and Vintages. W. W. Norton. pp. 365–373.
ISBN 978-0-393-05138-4.
4. "Stag's Leap Wine Cellars" . Wine Doctor.
Retrieved 2011-01-30.
5. "After the leap: His celebrated winery
sold, Warren Winiarski ponders his legacy -
and his next move - SFGate" .
Articles.sfgate.com. 2008-03-28. Retrieved
2011-01-30.
6. "Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - Estate -
Map" . Cask23.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
7. Murphy, Linda (2007-07-31). "Stag's Leap
Wine Cellars sold to Antinori, Ste Michelle" .
Decanter. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
8. Jack Heeger (July 31, 2007). "Wineries
go on the block" . The Napa Valley Register.
Retrieved 2007-08-01.
9. Jon Bonné (August 1, 2007). "Napa Valley
Stunner - Famed Winery Sold" . San
Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
10. Frank Prial (1979-06-16). "Wine talk:
California reds score high in testing but
some caveats must be weighed". The New
York Times. p. 39.
11. "National Museum of American History -
Treasures of American History" .
Americanhistory.si.edu. 2008-10-24.
Retrieved 2011-01-30.
12. "To our readers" . Time. 1996-05-20.
Archived from the original on 2007-01-10.
Retrieved 2011-01-30.
13. "The Smithsonian Magazine includes
wine in its "101 Objects that Made
America." " .
Tastingroom.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.
Retrieved 19 May 2018.
14. Edwards, Owen. "That Revolutionary
May Day in 1976 When California Wines
Bested France's Finest" .
Smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 19 May
2018.
15.
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/shawg/course
s/196B/readings/jop_the_buzz.pdf
Archived 2016-06-15 at the Wayback
Machine
16. Bruce May (April 26, 1987). "California
Wines Top French Again In Tasting
Rematch". The Pittsburgh Press.
17. "LA Times - Tasted 30 years later:
They're alive!" . Articles.latimes.com. 2006-
05-31. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
18. "Stag's Leap Wine Cellars - Wines" .
Cask23.com. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
19. Prial, Frank J. (1991-09-11). "NY Times -
Wine Talk" . Select.nytimes.com. Retrieved
2011-01-30.

External links
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

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