Ratings & Tasting Notes:

99 points — Wine Advocate (Robert Parker, December 2016)
Parker finds the 2013 ratchets up the level of complexity, richness and density. Magnificent floral notes intermix with blueberry, blackberry and cassis, with no hint of new oak. Full-bodied opulence on the palate, great purity and personality make for what he calls a prodigious example of Cabernet Sauvignon, to drink over the next thirty years and more.

97+ points — Vinous (Antonio Galloni, December 2016)
Galloni calls it quite simply one of the wines of the vintage. Crème de cassis, inky blue and purplish fruit, menthol, liquorice and dark spices are among the myriad aromas and flavours that open up as the wine makes its presence felt. Huge and massively tannic, it captures all the personality of a great vintage alongside darker shades of expression that recall the S.L.V. — in his phrase, S.L.V. on steroids.

96 points — Decanter (October 2018)
A head-turner, saturatedly dark black-red, with irresistible scents of blue forest fruits, a pencilly freshness and a little bitter-orange charm. Intense, fresh, bright and tightly gathered despite the intrinsic sweetness of the fruit. Perfumes float to the very end of the palate, which finishes clean and fresh — a wine of invisible dimensions whose generosity is carried by its intrinsic grandeur.

96 points — Wine & Spirits (December 2016)
The reviewer explains how Marcus Notaro builds the wine, using the upper blocks of Fay and S.L.V. for structure alongside selections from lower, silty soils that give a lighter, more fragrant Cabernet. What is remarkable about the 2013, he writes, is how those elements combine with the textural richness and polish of great Stags Leap District Cabernet and then expand into fragrance. A wine with forward motion, described by a colleague as a torrent of propulsive fruit in the middle that pushes the oak aside. The lasting impression is savoury and bright, and he expects it to live long among the greats of the 2013 vintage in Napa.

Cult Wines International Notes:

Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars was founded in 1970, when Warren Winiarski bought a 44-acre block in what is now the Stags Leap District after tasting a homemade wine from his neighbour Nathan Fay’s vineyard. Six years later the estate achieved something close to legend: three-year-old vines from its S.L.V. parcel produced a 1973 Cabernet that bested several of Bordeaux’s greatest growths in the 1976 blind tasting known as the Judgment of Paris. Cask 23 is the pinnacle of the range, made only in years the estate judges worthy and assembled from a selection of the finest barrels drawn from its two estate vineyards — the volcanic, fast-draining S.L.V. and the alluvial Fay below the palisades. The house style, richness held within elegant restraint, is often described as an iron fist in a velvet glove.

2013 was one of the finest Napa vintages of the decade, a long and even growing season that delivered ripeness and structure together. Cask 23 combines the signature perfume of Fay with the structure and minerality of S.L.V., with the upper hillside blocks of both vineyards building the frame and the lower silty soils supplying fragrance. The wine is saturated black-red, offering crème de cassis, blueberry, blackberry, blue forest fruit and black cherry over menthol, liquorice, cola, bitter orange, dark spice and a pencilly freshness, with magnificent floral notes and no obtrusive oak. Full-bodied and opulent, massively tannic and tightly gathered, yet finishing clean, fresh and perfumed. One critic named it a wine of the vintage, and the consensus gives it thirty years and more.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Outstanding condition.

Please note: The condition of the bottle you will receive is accurately reflected by the one shown in the images.