Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
The other half of the 1976 upset: while Montelena’s white beat Burgundy, a young Napa Cabernet from beneath the Stags Leap palisades outscored Bordeaux’s first growths. The reds have answered to California since.
At the same Paris tasting that crowned Montelena’s Chardonnay, the French judges ranked Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon — made by founder Warren Winiarski from vines barely three years old — above Bordeaux legends. It was the red half of the Judgment of Paris, the day California stopped asking permission; that bottle, too, now rests in the Smithsonian.
The estate sits in the Stags Leap District beneath the craggy volcanic palisades that name it, where afternoon bay air softens powerful fruit — a hot-days-cool-finish recipe every Temecula taster knows by heart. The house still farms the two vineyards behind the legend, and pouring its Cabernet within sight of those rocks is Napa’s best history lesson in a glass.
What to expect
| Go for | The red that won Paris — Cabernet tasted beneath the palisades that grew it |
|---|---|
| The history | 1973 Cabernet by Warren Winiarski, first among the reds at the 1976 Judgment; a bottle rests in the Smithsonian |
| The ground | The Stags Leap District — volcanic palisades, bay-cooled afternoons, and the two estate vineyards behind the legend |
| From the valley | The pilgrimage north — southern Napa; taste it the same day as Montelena for the full 1976 story |
Featured videos
The Cabernet that outscored Bordeaux — Winiarski, the palisades, and the red Judgment on film.
More of this direction
The other north doors on the shortlist — every one worth the drive back to Temecula.