Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

Sublime. Thankfully, I had 2 of these. Popped one open to drink with my Pops (dad); he made ribeyes. However, we drank 1/2 the bottle before the steaks were done. Used a Durand to pull the cork, which was soaked 1/2 way. Loved the color. Dark with bricking red/brown at the edge. Still some red fruits, though tannins were pretty much gone. Decent finish. Great experience. We chatted about building an ADU for my brother on the family's property. May …

1985 vintage

PnP = sour and green oak After 30 minutes the wood softened and a lovely line of cherry emerged. After an hour the tannins integrated and cherry was the predominant aroma and flavor. After a few hours a tertiary bit of leather complimented the cherry. Special because I don't open a 35-year-old bottle of wine every day.

1990 vintage

A little light but still decent fruit and nose.

1994 vintage

Unfortunately, by this time the port like characteristic overshadowed everything else. Although still with some very ripe fruits it was not a good drink. Too bad

1991 vintage

23x California 1974 : Do the legendary 1974s still hold up? The answer is a resounding YES, and not just for one or two top wines, but across the board. These best wines showed incredible complexity, with still vibrant fruit cores perfectly complemented by layers upon layers of tertiary aromas, a fully intact structural frame, stature, poise, and freshness. While many of these wines should continue to age well, I don't expect them to get any better than they are …

1974 vintage

Judgement of Paris (Lake Side Emotions) : Still surprisingly fresh and lively, this bottle opens with pronounced green bell pepper and pyrazines, leaning into the herbal, leafy side of aged Cabernet. Floral notes of violet, lilac, and spicy wildflowers lend a fragrant lift, but the wine feels a bit hollow on the mid-palate, with the fruit mostly faded and the structure beginning to fray. There’s a streak of high acidity that keeps things energetic, and while it hasn't fallen apart …

1975 vintage

A 1974 Napa Retrospective (Zunfthaus zur Waag Zürich) : Not corked but completely gone with intense acetone notes

1974 vintage

No formal notes based off memory from over a month ago but this was some people’s favorite in a lineup of many 94 Napa cabs. Some structure remaining but this feels ready to drink now. Lovely mix of fruit and tertiary notes.

1994 vintage

This is fantastic and exceeds expectations- blind I would guess at a 2008 - 10 Italian super Tuscan Dark and deep in colour but profile. Better than expected

2000 vintage

Blind. Bordeaux style, not as ripe, good density. 91

2000 vintage

Caberent Based Lunch (Schur House - Riverwoods IL) : Small glass tasted blind. Alive but honestly there was nothing interesting left.

1975 vintage

High neck fill Crystal clear med light ruby with an aged rim This particular bottle was perfectly stored since release. Really lovely. Completely Cali and completely resolved in terms of tannins, oak. A huge amalgamation of cherry, watermelon, tomato compote, perfect balance, with and herbal, sage, stem. Damn near perfect

1974 vintage

Fill into the neck, cork in excellent condition. Dark crimson/purple color with no signs of bricking. Lots of tobacco leaf, leather, green pepper, and some coriander on the nose. Medium to full body, with abundant cedar notes, lively acidity, red currant, and chewy but balanced tannins. Still seems to have a lot of life left.

1980 vintage

6th Annual PNV Kick Off Lunch...1st travel since shutdown!..w Tom/Jay/Mitch/Monica/Paula/Jamie A/Tor/Greg G (Farmstead, St. Helena, CA) : A contribution from Tom, what appeared to be a pristine bottle showed mild cork taint. Thought it might blow off but was till there in an hour... Underlying fruit was still there, silky and expressive. Too bad this was a flawed bottle!

1977 vintage

Great Wine With Great Friends (Cherokee Town & Country Club) : Final cellar diving bottle of the evening and to me it was the most interesting of them all. We had very low expectations of this wine and then we pulled the cork. Having been cellared perfectly since release, this was a great example of what a carefully aged California wine can become. Had this been serve blinded to me, I would have called it a Bordeaux and I would …

1979 vintage

Still hanging in there

1977 vintage

Found this one-off bottle at K&L and bought it without expecting too much given its age, and was pleasantly surprised. Decanted about 2 hours - faint fruit on the nose with surprisingly vibrant acidity for a 26-year old wine. Light/medium bodied. Drank over the course of three hours with an evolving palate - from the expected fruit and oak to earthy spices and faint green pepper. Chalky tannins. Probably better a few years ago, but Stag's Leap indeed lives up …

1994 vintage

This took 30 minutes to wake up. A good, but not great, Cabernet from 1974. Had plenty of dried tobacco and dried spice box and still rich fruit, just a little less intense, perfumed and intense as other producers / bottles from this great Napa vintage.

1974 vintage

Old Napa Wines Dinner (Joseph's Place, Wong Chung Hang, Hong Kong) : Drank blind in a long line of older Napa reds. A deep red/purple colour that is still almost totally opaque. Nose is a bit rubbery but there is also some deep, red berry fruit. Palate retains an acidic freshness but the fruit is now a very thin veil. Tart on the finish and turned sour quite quickly. Well past its prime.

1975 vintage

Nice fruit, silky tannin. still hanging in there

1977 vintage

Bottle from our cold cellar, held up better than I thought given earlier notes. May be a bit past peak, but more youthful than I expected. Fully resolved tannins, tobacco, some red fruits, a bit of drying acidity, but not over the top. Better than I hoped. Had the '94 Cask 23 earlier in the week, and this was as good/better...go figure.

1994 vintage

Excellent

1985 vintage

Special bottling for the National Geographic Society in DC from 1988, to celebrate their centennial. Dried black cherries and currants. Faint mint notes. Acidity and tannins mostly gone. Declining.

1985 vintage

This bottle was pretty much over the hill. Decanted and tried after 40 minutes and again after 1 1/2 hours, it was tired and a bit dirty. We fled to something else but gave it a last taste after three hours... still not good. I kind of enjoy these old faded wines that I have let go way too long, I find them interesting and educational. My wife, however, is very intolerant, just wants it to taste good. She doesn't …

1994 vintage

It's not dead yet but it is drying out. There's fruit that is fading, leaving a hot underlay. It's still enjoyable and educational but it should be drunk up.

1994 vintage

This was a beautiful wine. It had very good color, and a lovely nose or pencil shavings and fruitiness - once it opened up. It still had good fruit (red and some dark), good balance, a lightness (in a good sense) on the palate) and a nice finish. Maybe just a bit lacking in depth???? Stated another way, this was a beautifully mature California Cabernet that we were lucky enough to have enjoyed.

1980 vintage

Old wine flavor, light brown in color, slight tart cherry flavor. Wonderful drinking wine.

2000 vintage

Round tannins, full on the palate. Still fresh fruit. Bandaids and slight must and graphite.

1977 vintage

1992 & Older Napa Cabs - Blind - With a Few Ringers (Siggy & Jenny's Place, Mpls, MN) : Very dark red color. PNP, drank 1 glass blind over an hour. This flight consisted of '90 Anderson's Conn Valley Estate, '91 Stag's Leap Napa Cab, and an '04 Ausone ringer. The Ausone was wine of the flight with a slowly emerging, but eventually great nose. The Stag's Leap was more advanced and had a Port like character. Raisin and plum, …

1991 vintage

Strong blackcurrent aroma. Pronounced back-end structure and tannins but has very good acidity which gives it a racy quality. This is not a fruit monster, but instead has an elegance to it that implies further ageability. Very good.

2000 vintage

Flat, fruit is gone. Tannin is still there

2000 vintage

Opened at 3:15 - drank well straight from the bottle as suggested by Marcus Notaro the winemaker at Stags Leap who we spoke with as we tasted this wine. Notes taken 1 hour after opening. Deep ruby red in color. Blueberry and soil on the nose. Flavors include dark fruits, chocolate, vanilla and plums. Tasted in a vertical with the 1978 lot 2. The 77 is much fruitier and 78 much earthier.

1977 vintage

Old Wine Offline; 9/26/2014-9/27/2014 (The Room Off the Patio at Ruth's Chris, and My House) : Clear, light garnet color, orange at the rim. Not much fruit here, save for a bit of raisiny tawniness, but the overall impression was clean and elegant, quite pleasant in fact.

1974 vintage

8/14 Vibrant with concentrated cherry fruit and long-lasting structured finish. 92 pts.

1975 vintage

Bottle shows excellent storage. Cork came out clean with suction, wet 1/3 the way up. This wine is still very pleasurable but a bit more advanced and less complex than the 1984 I had only a few days ago. Both bottles were sourced from the same collection. Drink these up now.

1985 vintage

Oh my, this is good. Took about 10 minutes to pick up steam, then was clear that this is California cab at its best! Nose has earth, smoke, coffee grounds, mature fruit. I could sniff this all night. Very savory on palate with chalky tannins that I can't get enough of. This is quality stuff. 1990 was a very good year and it shows in this basic napa valley bottling.

1990 vintage

In perfect drinking condition. Lots of lush fruit. Very soft tannins.

1991 vintage

Gifted this bottle from a very generous acquaintance. Bright correct color. Beautifully complex, and wonderfully and fully mature, this nonetheless suffered from being just plain tired. Feeble. An old geezer. Still had something to say, but kinda nodding off mid sentence. You get the idea.... If you have any of this relic, take him out to the backyard and put him out of his misery before he tells you another long winded story from the Great War in which he …

1979 vintage

Perfectly stored. Drank very well, fruit is still present but on its last leg. Plum, black cherry, touch of smoke, no edges whatsoever.

1974 vintage

Time to drink up.. deep purple and tannin based. Very woody/leathery but still kept it aroma and taste over 24 hours.

2000 vintage

True, it didn't last long in the glass, but neither did it in the bottle!

1990 vintage

Just a little brown at the edges, showing some age. Fruit had faded somewhat, and the tannins dominated a bit on the palate. Good wine, but consistent with the vintage. I've had better Stag's Leap offerings.

2000 vintage

Exotic spices, nice savory element with earthy mushrooms, pot pouri, forest floor and all the other cliches. A touch of good sweet-tart berry fruit still present on the palate! structure still present, silky, tannins where they should be (pretty much all gone, but not tired). This really surprised me and rocked. Needed some roast beef though...

1975 vintage

Drinking past it's prime but still very nice, nose was nice no fruit and lasted 1 hour in the bottle, terroir was napa no very distinct but there

1990 vintage

Definitely over the hill, though more attractive on palate than nose.

1994 vintage

Maybe this wine was better oh, ten years ago. Color was good on opening but this bottle was D-E-A-D. No fruit left -- just a nasty blend of acid and tannin ... urgh

1985 vintage

Appearance- reddish purple with faded edges Nose- dust, berry. Taste - upfront dust fading to cherry cough drop, long astringent complex finish. Showing much nicer 4 + hrs decanting.

2000 vintage

Surprisingly good for an off vintage. Not overwhelming but well integrated fruit flavors that finish smoothly.

2000 vintage

WS

1994 vintage

Drank 1994 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley...We enjoyed this one with new friends at Lawry's in Las Vegas last Saturday night. This one comes before the days of the syrupy Napa Valley fruit bomb. Fruit has faded a little bit, but it was a very elegant elder statesman of a wine, with red berry fruit flavors, and a little flash of cellar dust to remind you that it's probably time to drink this if you still have …

1994 vintage

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Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

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