Stags' Leap Winery 'The Leap' Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

Winery Notes
The Leap Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of the most expressive barrels from select blocks of our century old, 240-acre estate. These blocks produce a long-lived wine that exemplifies both richness and elegance and speaks to the unique terroir of the Stags Leap District.

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Tasting Notes
Our 2018 The Leap Cabernet Sauvignon exemplifies the distinctive personality of our estate vineyard and this extraordinary vintage, offering dark, alluring, layered intensity with notes of black berry fruit alongside a rich, mouth-enveloping texture. This wine is classic Stags Leap District Cabernet, offering aromas and flavors of blackcurrant, cassis, dark raspberry and black cherry alongside delicate notes of cedar, allspice, graphite and espresso, backed up by more savory notes of olive tapenade and chaparral herbs. There is depth, finesse and elegance, interweaving power, grace and structure, full of velvety rich tannins and a long, lingering fresh finish. The texture is plentiful and mouth-filling, while the intensity is softened by the terroir elements coming through from the balance, delicacy and grace that has become synonymous with Stags’ Leap estate wines. Drinking beautifully now but exhibits the opulence and structure of the estate, that allows this Cabernet to age for many years to come.

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Vintage Notes
The Napa Valley region enjoyed a stunning, near picture-perfect 2018 growing season including good winter rains, mild spring weather and steady temperatures throughout that allowed for even flowering and bud break. These ideal growing conditions were followed by a cool, even and slow-paced harvest which allowed the winery to vinify wines at a gentle pace. The resulting 2018 wines are of very high quality with lower alcohol, concentrated flavors, color and excellent acidity.

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Vineyard Notes
Cabernet Sauvignon is synonymous with Napa Valley and has always been a mainstay in the winemaking program at Stags’ Leap Winery. The Leap is sourced from select Cabernet Sauvignon blocks within our Stags’ Leap Winery estate vineyard that are twenty-five years old, on average. This singular expanse of earth tucked up against the eastern palisades of Napa Valley features thin, rocky soils in its upper reaches, giving way to finer-grained loamy soils at its floor. The heat-reflecting palisades, with their towering rocky crags, provide consistent warmth over the estate and help balance the cooling breezes from the south. This pronounced micro-climate is remarkably well-suited to growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes of distinction.

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Winemaking Notes
The Leap is a barrel selection, a blend of the best Cabernet Sauvignon blocks, lots and cooperages in a given vintage. Each lot undergoes a long, (almost month-long), maceration period which adds color, tannin and complexity of flavors to the Cabernet Sauvignon. Additionally, each lot was held separately in French oak barrels (60% new) for 20 months before Winemaker Christophe Paubert hand selected the most expressive of them to blend just prior to bottling. Keeping each block separate allows close monitoring of each individual lot through aging, maximizing the depth and potential of the estate vineyards.