Stags Leap District AVA
Napa Valley's silken Cabernet powerhouse, the first American AVA approved on the basis of soil and climate, home to the wine that won the 1976 Judgment of Paris.
About Stags Leap District
Stags Leap District is one of Napa Valley's most celebrated sub-appellations, a small basin of barely 2,700 acres tucked beneath the volcanic palisades of the Vaca Range east of Yountville. Established as an AVA in 1989 — the first in the United States defined on the combined evidence of its soils and climate — it built its fame almost entirely on Cabernet Sauvignon. Bale clay-loam sediments mixed with volcanic detritus, warm days and breezes drawn up from San Pablo Bay produce Cabernets of a distinctive character: deeply perfumed and structured, yet with a supple, velvety texture that growers describe as an 'iron fist in a velvet glove.' The district entered wine history in 1976 when Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' 1973 Cabernet bested First-Growth Bordeaux at the Judgment of Paris. Today a tight cluster of estates, including Shafer Vineyards, continues to define the region's polished, age-worthy style.
Terroir & regulation
Principal producers
- Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
- Shafer Vineyards
- Clos du Val
- Pine Ridge
- Chimney Rock
Editorial notes
The 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet won the red-wine flight at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, putting Napa Valley on the world map. The district was the first US AVA approved on the basis of soil and climate rather than place name.