Incredible Wine Tasting at the Iconic Stag’s Leap Cellars, Napa Valley

Some vineyards become famous. Others become legend. At Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, the story begins in the hills of Napa Valley, where rugged volcanic soils, golden light, and cool evening breezes have shaped Cabernet Sauvignon for generations.

Founded in 1970, the estate entered the annals of wine history only six years later, when its 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon astonished the world at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, defeating some of France’s most celebrated Bordeaux and forever establishing Napa Valley as a force on the international stage. But the triumph was more than a victory—it was the revelation of a place.

That place is written into the vineyards. FAY, named for Nathan Fay, whose pioneering Cabernet vines were planted in 1961, expresses the vineyard’s more graceful, perfumed side: refined, lifted, and quietly compelling. S.L.V., the estate’s first vineyard, speaks with greater depth and authority, its wines marked by structure, concentration, and an unmistakable sense of place.

From these storied hills comes a progression of wines that tells the Stag’s Leap story in different voices. ARTEMIS, the estate’s popular and inviting Cabernet, is generous and polished, offering an immediate expression of Napa’s allure. FAY is more contemplative, revealing layers of elegance and finesse. S.L.V. carries the weight of history in every glass—powerful, precise, and profoundly connected to its vineyard.

And then there is CASK 23. Born from an extraordinary selection of fruit from FAY and S.L.V., it is the estate’s defining expression: majestic yet restrained, powerful yet beautifully composed. A wine of patience, pedigree, and place.

To taste Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is to taste more than Cabernet. It is to trace a journey—from pioneering vines and a historic hillside to wines that helped redefine American winemaking. Here, history is not simply remembered. It is cultivated, vintage after vintage, and poured into the glass.