Chimney Rock Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
£98.45
The wine
Abundant aromas of blackcurrant and cherry are layered with hints of mocha, vanilla and floral notes. Rich and savoury on the palate, with polished tannins and notes of plum, black cherry, dried fig and vanilla culminating in a long, smooth finish.
The Stags Leap District runs for barely three miles along the eastern side of Napa beneath the palisades. The rock face radiates heat back onto the vines through the afternoon while cool air draws up from San Pablo Bay at night, and the wines are known for a softer, more perfumed texture than Napa's benchmark.
The producer
Chimney Rock
View all Chimney Rock winesChimney Rock takes its name from the rock formations on the Palisades behind the winery, which resemble chimney stacks. Hack and Stella Wilson established it in 1980 and made the first estate wine in 1984. The Cape Dutch-style winery followed in the early 1990s, complete with an allegorical frieze of Ganymede, cupbearer to the gods. The Terlato family joined in 2000.
The estate sits in the Stags Leap District, one of the smallest and most celebrated appellations in Napa. It runs for barely three miles along the eastern side of the valley beneath the palisades, and the rock face radiates heat back onto the vineyards through the afternoon while cool air draws up from San Pablo Bay at night. Stags Leap Cabernet is known for a particular texture, softer and more perfumed than Napa's benchmark, often described as an iron fist in a velvet glove.
It was a Stags Leap Cabernet that beat the first growths at the Judgement of Paris in 1976 and changed how the world regarded California.
