United States · California

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is one of California's most historically significant producers, established by Warren Winiarski in Napa Valley's Stags Leap District in 1972. The 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon defeated Château Mouton Rothschild and other First Growths at the 1976 Paris Tasting, an event that reoriented global wine perceptions. Now owned by Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Marchesi Antinori (acquired 2007), the estate produces three single-vineyard Cabernets: S.L.V. (the Paris tasting wine), Fay (the adjacent vineyard), and Cask 23 (a blend of the two plus selected parcels). Across 1,467 auction lots averaging $153, Cask 23 is the flagship with top vintages commanding $300–$800 per bottle. Fay and S.L.V. trade between $150–$300. The 1973 S.L.V. original Paris tasting wine commands significant auction premiums when it surfaces — well above $1,000. Benchmark modern vintages are 2002, 2005, 2012, and 2016. Soda Canyon Ranch was added to the portfolio in 2018 as a new single-vineyard bottling from a Coombsville site acquired in 2014. The estate's volcanic tuff soils in the Stags Leap District produce Napa's most distinctive Cabernet: silky-textured, iron-inflected, and more Pauillac-like than most Napa reds.