Stags Leap District

Here, cool Pacific breezes and long, dry summer days weave a certain magic with grapevines rooted in ancient volcanic soils and overlays of bale loam from old Napa River sediment. Under these hospitable conditions, the Cabernet grapes mature slowly, developing distinctive, complex layers of flavor.

The resulting Cabernet Sauvignon wines have created some modern legends of their own. As they began gathering critical acclaim in the early 1970s, they were instrumental in establishing the reputation of the Napa Valley as one of the finest wine-producing regions in the United States.

HISTORY
Grape-growing in the Stags Leap District harks back to the mid-1800s, when the Silverado Trail was a quiet horse path. At the time, the land around the Trail was home to several vineyards, as well as French prune orchards and rambling berry bushes. One of the first wineries in the area was the Occidental Cellar, built in 1878 by Terril L. Grigsby. In 1893, north of Grigsby's large winery, a San Francisco entrepreneur named Horace B. Chase built the first winery to carry the Stags Leap name. By 1895 Chase was producing 40,000 gallons of wine under the Stags Leap name.

A turning point began when Nathan Fay planted the district's first Cabernet vineyards in 1961. He recalls that at the time "there were only 800 acres of Cabernet planted in the whole United States." The Fay vineyard took root in coarse volcanic soil on a slope midway along the Stags Leap District portion of the Silverado Trail. More plantings of Cabernet followed as vintners were drawn to the area throughout the 1970s. These plantings turned out to be the crown jewels of the emerging district.

Wines from the 1972 and 1973 vintages in this relatively obscure region went on to capture the attention of the wine world, beginning at the famous Paris tasting of 1976. French judges at the event pronounced the Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon the winner in a blind tasting that included Bordeaux from Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Montrose. Some of the astonished experts dismissed California Cabernets, in general, as beautiful in their "youth" but unlikely to age with true finesse. But in an identical tasting, 10 years later, another Stags Leap District Cabernet - the 1972 Clos Du Val - took the honors.

The Stags Leap District was designated a viticultural appellation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) in January, 1989. The district comprises 1,300 acres of vineyards in the Napa Valley, California.

THE LAY OF THE LAND
The Stags Leap District begins seven miles north of the town of Napa, on the Silverado Trail. Its northern boundary is drawn by the Yountville Cross Road. Barely a mile wide and almost three miles long, the district is bounded by rocky hillsides to the east and the Napa River to the west.

Within these well-defined borders lie random folds and knobs of land, evidence of radical shifts in the earth's crust. Soils on the eastern elevation are the result of volcanic eruptions 10 million years past, and the slow erosion of the Vaca Range. In the lowland, where the Napa River once ran through the district, old Napa River sediment has created a unique blend of bale loam with a clay-like substructure. Soil reports from the University of California at Davis state, "We have not seen any valley floor soils elsewhere in Napa Valley similar to the Stags Leap District valley floor soils." In brief, these gravelly soils and those of the hillsides are coarser and retain less water than most - favorable characteristics which gently "stress" the vines, resulting in intensely flavored fruit.

"The Stags Leap District is the first viticultural area in the United States to be so approved based on the distinctiveness of its soils." - Deborah Elliot-Fisk, Associate Professor of Geography, University of California, Davis.

As these elements of the earth mesh with factors such as the angle of the sun and nature of the breezes flowing through the narrow valley, a distinct picture emerges of a wine-growing region unlike any other.

The mass of bare rock from which the Stags Leap District takes its name retains and reflects the afternoon sun, warming nearby vineyards and causing temperatures to rise more quickly than in the flatlands beyond the Napa River. The Stags Leap District nights are cooler, however. Breezes blowing both from the Pacific, through the San Pablo Bay and across the Carneros region reach the wide end of a "funnel" at the south end of the district. As the small valley narrows, the breezes run into hills and mountains on three sides. These barriers cause the winds to swirl. As they move faster they simply create a natural air-conditioning effect.

These elements add up to the type of growing season suited to the late-maturing Cabernet Sauvignon grape. They are also beneficial to other varietals, such as Chardonnay, Merlot, and Zinfandel. The heat encourages optimal ripening and the coolness maintains the grapes' acid and fruity characteristics.