Virtual Wine Tasting featuring Stags Leap Winery with Special Guest Winemaker Christophe Paubert

Wednesday, August 19, 2020 - 06:00 PM

This Event has been read: 1546 times.

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"I've got my Cheap Wine and a three day growth"
Cheap Wine by Cold Chisel

There are probably a lot of people with 3+ day growth out there as I noticed many of the cameras were not on for our Virtual Tasting yesterday. 

Wednesday is Virtual Wine Tasting Day at Wine Watch!

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We are hosting virtual tastings every Wednesday on Zoom and Instagram live which will be posted to Instagram TV.  So, if you can’t make it at 6pm to chat with John Priest, the winemaker for Etude Winery on Wednesday, August 5th you can tune in any time after that by checking out the video posted to Wine Watch’s Instagram page.  The virtual tasting packs are up on our web page under the gift box selections and you can purchase them before the event and taste along with us or purchase them any time after the event until the wines are no longer available and taste the wines and watch the interview at your leisure.

In two weeks, we have the winemaker from Stags’ Leap Winery.  Join us as we welcome Christophe Paubert on Wednesday, August 19th at 6pm EST.  We will be showing three wines from this historic Napa Valley winery and we have the three pack listed on this e-mail and in the Wine Watch gift Box section of the Web page if you want to follow along you can purchase all three wines in one pack or any of the wines individually on our web page just type in Stags’ Leap Winery and you will find the selections we are showcasing for the event.

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Virtual Wine Tasting featuring the wines of Stags’ Leap Winery
with Special Guest Winemaker Christophe Paubert
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
6:00 PM


https://www.winewatch.com/wine-gift-boxes-d1/virtual-wine-tasting-kits-c128/virtual-wine-tasting-3-pack-for-stags-leap-winery-p29383/
Price: $100
Stags Leap Winery Sauvignon Blanc Napa 2018  
Stags Leap Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 2016       
Stags Leap Winery Petite Sirah Napa 2016           

 

 

 

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Topic: Virtual Wine Tasting Stags' Leap Winery with Winemaker Christophe Paubert​
Time: Aug 19, 2020 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)​

Join Zoom Meeting​
https://zoom.us/j/98837952414?pwd=RWc3amJQMEdDNC9WWUxGcjh4WmwrZz09

Meeting ID: 988 3795 2414​
Password: 2f8PyG

 

All of the Wines from Stags’ Leap Winery:

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Stags Leap Winery Sauvignon Blanc Napa 2018  
Price: $24.00   Sale $21.12

This inaugural 2018 Sauvignon Blanc is lively, expressive and vibrant, exhibiting the variety’s classic citrus fruit, lemongrass and white floral nuances.  Backed up by a lean focused line of acidity and a steely minerality that adds to the wine’s crispness and complexity.  There is a depth of flavor with candied lemon peel, passion fruit and melon, alongside hints of white floral jasmine and white pepper that linger on the palate of the lengthy finish.  Elegant, mouthwatering and savory, this Sauvignon Blanc is a perfect expression of Napa Valley, making it an ideal accompaniment to warm weather occasions. Enjoy on its own or pair with a wide variety of your favorite seafood, chicken or Mediterranean dishes.

VINEYARD NOTES: Our Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from two distinct vineyards in the Oak Knoll and Stags Leap District AVAs, with a majority coming from Gamble Ranch in Oak Knoll and the rest from Stags Landing vineyard in Stags Leap.  Located in the southern part of Napa Valley, Oak Knoll is optimal for growing Sauvignon Blanc, providing sufficient sun exposure for ripening and cool marine fog for maintaining natural acidity. Sauvignon Blanc planted here shows flavor complexity and refined aromatic expression, ideal for our bottling.  Further up valley at Stags Landing, the vineyard is near the Napa River and contributes richer, riper toned Sauvignon Blanc fruit, as well as the distinctive minerality found in Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

VINTAGE NOTES: The beauty of Sauvignon Blanc is captured in its freshness, and the traditional techniques used by Winemaker Christophe Paubert preserve that splendor.  To improve the aromatic extraction prior to fermenting, the winemakers used a technique in which the juice and lees were in tank together for up to three days prior to fermentation, along with intentional skin contact during that time, to create more aromatic richness and texture on the palate.  The wine was then aged for six months in 20% new and 50% neutral French Oak barrels, while 30% of the juice was preserved in stainless steel.  This wine does not go through malolactic fermentation which helps to keep the delicate floral aromas, fruit freshness and balanced acidity.

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Stags Leap Winery Chardonnay Napa 2018         
Price: $24.00   Sale $21.12

The fragrant citrus blossom bouquet opens with aromas of delicate Meyer lemon and lime zest, fresh white peach and floral honeysuckle, alongside more subtle hints of Tarte Tatin and brioche toast (a nod to the well-integrated French Oak) which fills the glass and encourages you to dive into this lively Chardonnay. The palate is refreshingly mouthwatering with nuances of lemon meringue, green apple, guava and Asian pear, while also showing a luscious texture that is rich and balanced (hinting at the delicate batonnage lees stirring that occurs during the winemaking process). With well-integrated vanilla and caramel oak notes and extraordinary length and depth on the finish, this wine is round, full and bright, yet generous in style and maintains a core of freshness due to its acidity, which creates an elegant Chardonnay full of grace and complexity.

The grapes for our Napa Valley Chardonnay were sourced from the cooler southern appellations within Napa Valley, where fog from the San Pablo Bay helps to cool the vineyards throughout the growing season, allowing for ideal preservation of freshness and acidity. The majority of the fruit comes from the Carneros AVA which provides citrus, mineral, and crisp apple notes, with a smaller percentage coming from the Oak Knoll AVA, which contributes more tropical and stone fruit characteristics. These vineyards consistently produce Chardonnay ideal for our style of winemaking with fresh fruit flavors and bright acidity and vibrancy.

The Napa Valley region enjoyed a stunning, near picture-perfect 2018 growing season including good winter rains, mild spring weather and steady temperatures throughout that allowed for even flowering and bud break. These ideal growing conditions were followed by a cool, even and slow-paced harvest which allowed the winery to vinify wines at a gentle pace. The resulting 2018 wines are of very high quality with lower alcohol, concentrated flavors, color and excellent acidity.

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2017 Stags Leap Winery Viognier
Price: $33.25   Sale $29.26     Quantity in Stock: 5

The 2017 Viognier impresses for its array of white peach, apricot, honeysuckle and citrus blossom. It preserves the variety’s rich nuances but remains vibrant and elegant throughout. Crisp and distinctively fresh, this Viognier maintains an enviable balance of floral subtlety, bracing minerality and rich texture.

Stags Leap Winery Viognier Napa 2018    
Price: $33.25   Sale $29.26

Our Viognier is sourced from three select vineyards in the Oak Knoll and Carneros AVAs. Located in the southern part of  Napa Valley, these cooler vineyards are optimal for growing Viognier, providing sufficient sun exposure for ripening and cool marine fog for maintaining natural acidity. The Viognier planted at these Oak Knoll and Carneros vineyards showcase flavor complexity and refined aromatic expression ideal for our bottling.

The Napa Valley region enjoyed a stunning, near picture-perfect 2018 growing season including good winter rains, mild spring weather and steady temperatures throughout that allowed for even flowering and bud break. These ideal growing conditions were followed by a cool, even and slow-paced harvest which allowed the winery to vinify wines at a gentle pace. The resulting 2018 wines are of very high quality with concentrated flavors, color and excellent acidity.

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Stags Leap Winery Merlot Napa 2016       
Price: $36.00   Sale $31.68
With freshness emphasizing its southern Napa origins, the 2016 Merlot is a combination of juicy black cherry, macerated strawberries, fig, vanilla and cherry cola. There are also delicate light floral rose petal, cocoa powder, forest floor and sweet baking spice notes, imparted from the oak ageing. The palate is generous and dense with mouth pleasing fruit flavors, polished structure, refreshing acidity, and plush tannins, leading to a lengthy finish, exhibiting a well-balanced wine that shows the true elegance of Merlot. 
Our Napa Valley Merlot is crafted with grapes from vineyards in the southern part of Napa Valley. Fruit from Oak Knoll makes up the majority of the blend, with the remaining fruit sourced from Carneros and the south part of the Oakville appellation. Merlot can lose its varietal identity when exposed to too much heat, but the fruit from these select southerly vineyards exhibit varietal expressions of fresh fruit character, structure, and bright acidity.
The extended drought was beginning to cause real concern as the 2016 growing season kicked off, but some welcomed winter rain hinted at the relief to come. After a relatively dry January we enjoyed significant rainfall in February, along with mild temperatures. Bud break was early, but was slowed by heavy April showers. While still early by historical standards, picking began about a week later than 2015, right around Labor Day, and continued at a leisurely pace, allowing the grapes to reach full flavor maturity. A traditionally sized harvest followed the lighter showing of 2015, and the extended mild season helped to balance the acids and add complexity to the layers of flavors. Considered a perfect harvest and a winemaker’s dream vintage, conditions were perfect for producing a Merlot with beautiful fruit as well as tremendous concentration of flavors, highly saturated color, and layers of complexity.

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Stags Leap Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Napa 2016       
Price: $51.00   Sale $44.88

(94 Points) The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Malbec, 5% Merlot and 5% Rhône varieties aged in 37% new French oak for 20 months. Deep purple-black in color, it opens with crushed blueberries, black cherries and cassis with touches of yeast extract, beef dripping, bay leaves and cedar with a waft of lilacs. Medium-bodied and wonderfully elegant in the mouth, the palate reveals fantastic energy with a firm, grainy frame and long, mineral-laced finish. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate, October 29, 2018

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2014 Stags Leap Winery the Investor Napa
List Price: $43.50        Sale $38.28     Quantity in Stock: 21

Reflective of the winery’s ability to combine power with elegance, the 2014 vintage of The Investor is rich in dark purple fruit but also captivating for its notes of tea leaf, roasting spices of sage and rosemary with touches of chaparral herbs, cinnamon and clove on the nose. It’s an instant palate pleaser with generous, concentrated flavors of blackberry, blueberry, plum, black cherry, strawberry and fine-grained, soft tannins and a juicy, mouthwatering acidity.

Stags Leap Winery The Investor Napa 2016         
Price: $37.50   Sale $33.00
Reflective of the winery’s ability to combine power with elegance, the 2016 Investor is rich and expressive with blueberry, bramble berry, wild raspberry, prune and sweet baking spices, alongside intriguing notes of white pepper, camphor and tar, with touches of savory chaparral brush, like fresh mint and wild purple rose. Generous mouth pleasing chewy tannins envelop the palate finishing with juicy, mouthwatering acidity. Enjoyable now and can be cellared for 5-10 years.

The Investor is a red wine that beautifully blends together the unique flavors and expressions of Merlot, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, resulting in a powerful, yet approachable assemblage with significant fruit presence. The Merlot contributes fresh red berry aromatics and a soft, velvety texture to balance the power of Petite Sirah, which adds concentration, tannins, spice and blueberry flavors. The Cabernet Sauvignon further increases the final blend’s complexity and depth and the Malbec’s incredibly vibrant floral aromatics heighten the blend’s freshness. The majority of the Petite Sirah fruit comes from estate vineyards in Oakville, and additional fruit is sourced from a diverse selection of northern and southern Napa Valley vineyards to broaden the wine’s floral and spicy characteristics. The Merlot is grown on the Stags’ Leap estate in the heart of the Stags Leap District, and a selection of southern valley floor Cabernet Sauvignon fruit makes up the balance of the blend.

The extended drought was beginning to cause real concern as the 2016 growing season kicked off, but some welcomed winter rain hinted at the relief to come. After a relatively dry January we enjoyed significant rainfall in February, along with mild temperatures. Bud break was early, but was slowed by heavy April showers. While still early by historical standards, picking began about a week later than 2015, right around Labor Day, and continued at a leisurely pace, allowing the grapes to reach full flavor maturity. A traditionally sized harvest followed the lighter showing of 2015, and the extended mild season helped to balance the acids and add complexity to the layers of flavors. Considered a perfect harvest and a winemaker’s dream vintage, conditions were perfect for producing wines with tremendous concentration of flavors, highly saturated color, and layers of complexity

Stags Leap Winery The Investor Napa 2017         
Price: $37.50   Sale $33.00
Reflective of the winery’s ability to combine power with elegance, the 2017 Investor is plush and inviting, with intense dark blackberry, black cherry, wild plum alongside baking spice notes of cinnamon and clove. Alluring notes of black pepper, cedar and violet are supported by savory nuances of chaparral brush, showing hints of fresh thyme, lavender and sage.  The expansive mouthfeel is rich and generous with chewy, firm tannins that warm and coat the palate leading to an incredibly lengthy finish with ripe, mouthwatering acidity.  Enjoyable now and can be cellared for 5-10 years.        

Petite Sirah

Stags Leap Winery Petite Sirah Napa 2016           
Price: $39.00   Sale $34.32
A bit if Syrah, Grenache and Viognier in the blend, they had plantings of Petite Syrah going back to the early 1900's, this winery was one of the people that put this grape on the map.  A big and brawny wine with a nice hand of wild game, dark spices and espresso like coffee notes, very big bouquet.  A big and chewy wine on the tongue wtih nice richness and a host of dark spices at the end, very well built.  Finsih 45+    Excellent

 

2015 Stags' Leap The Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 750
Stags Leap Winery "The Leap" Napa 2016         
Price: $101.25 Sale $89.10
Our 2016 The Leap Cabernet Sauvignon captures the distinctive personality of our estate vineyard and this incredible vintage, crafting a darkly intense, multilayered, rich and approachable wine with depth of fruit, plushness and creamy richness. This wine is classic Stags Leap District Cabernet, offering blackberry, blueberry and macerated strawberry aromas on the nose, along with subtle baking spice notes of cinnamon, milk chocolate and coffee, alongside more savory notes of black olive and chaparral herbs.  On the palate, there is elegance, freshness and complexity, showing lifted dark blackberry, blueberry and black raspberry fruits followed by hints of chocolate, espresso and black pepper spice.  With big, round, mouth-pleasing tannins and a silky, smooth lithe texture, this Cabernet exhibits the iconic power and intensity that have become synonymous with Stags’ Leap estate wines but drinks elegantly, demonstrating the opulence and grace of the estate.

VINEYARD NOTES: Cabernet Sauvignon is synonymous with Napa Valley and has always been a mainstay in the winemaking program at Stags’ Leap Winery. The Leap is sourced from select Cabernet Sauvignon blocks within our Stags’ Leap Winery estate vineyard that are twenty-five years old, on average. This singular expanse of earth tucked up against the eastern palisades of Napa Valley features thin, rocky soils in its upper reaches, giving way to finer-grained loamy soils at its floor. The heat-reflecting palisades, with their towering rocky crags, provide consistent warmth over the estate and help balance the cooling breezes from the south. This pronounced micro-climate is remarkably well-suited to growing Cabernet Sauvignon grapes of distinction.

VINTAGE NOTES: The extended drought was beginning to cause real concern as the 2016 growing season kicked off, but some welcomed winter rain hinted at the relief to come.  After a relatively dry January we enjoyed significant rainfall in February, along with mild temperatures.  Bud break was early, but was slowed by heavy April showers.  While still early by historical standards, picking began about a week later than 2015, right around Labor Day, and continued at a leisurely pace, allowing the grapes to reach full flavor maturity.  A traditionally sized harvest followed the lighter showing of 2015, and the extended mild season helped to balance the acids and add complexity to the layers of flavors.  Considered a perfect harvest and a winemaker’s dream vintage, conditions were perfect for producing a Cabernet with beautiful fruit as well as tremendous concentration of flavors, highly saturated color, and layers of complexity.

A bit about Stags’ Leap Winery:


Just seven miles north of Napa, in a valley within a valley, lies the century-old, 240-acre wine estate known as Stags' Leap. Little has changed here since 1893, the year the winery was founded by Horace Chase and his wife Minnie Mizner Chase, the daughter of a prominent San Franciscan who was a U.S. Senator and Ambassador to Central America.

The property was named "Stags' Leap" after an old Indian legend that, one version says, told of a stag leaping across crags of the palisades (bordering the east side of the estate) to escape hunters. In addition to the old stone winery, the Chases built a gracious manor house and guest house that still stand, excavated the first wine storage caves on the east side of Napa Valley and installed what is thought to be the first in-ground fresh water swimming pool in Northern California. Stags' Leap became a center of social life, attracting the era's most prominent politicians, artists and writers. Friends making a journey from San Francisco crossed the Bay by ferry to Vallejo, boarded a train to Yountville, and made the last leg of their journey to Stags' Leap in horse-drawn carriages.

Perhaps it is the power of the land itself. Perhaps only providence. For whatever reason, those who have owned the Stags' Leap estate have taken it upon themselves to be stewards; committed to maintaining the rich natural heritage of this charmed valley.

Most remarkable among these individuals was Mrs. Frances Grange, who acquired Stags' Leap from Horace Chase in 1913. She carefully transformed the property into a working ranch and the Napa Valley's preeminent resort. Stags' Leap soon became a refuge for San Franciscans escaping the cold July fog and film stars dogged by press and fans. By day they sequestered themselves in the good care of Mrs. Grange and her staff, lounging, hiking and splashing in one of the state's first "swimming tanks."  Evening found them dining on the grand porch against a brilliant backdrop of orange and scarlet, painted by the sun as it slipped behind the Mayacamas Mountains.

After the Grange era, the winery, Manor House and cottages fell into disrepair. Wine production began again in earnest in 1971 when the property was purchased by Carl Doumani and underwent a vast restoration. In 1988 Doumani hired winemaker Robert Brittan and charged him with the task of making wines that express the unique qualities of the estate's vineyard. In 1997 Stags' Leap was purchased by Beringer Wine Estates, which in 2000 was purchased by the Australian company Foster’s Brewing Group, Ltd., whose two wine groups combined and are now Treasury Wine Estates. Robert Brittan continued the revitalization of the vineyards and winery until 2005.

Today, the winemaker and General manager is Christopher Paubert, for Christophe Paubert, Winemaker and General Manager at Stags’ Leap Winery, the identity of a wine is found through the terroir. Christophe’s career has spanned the industry from sales to winemaking, and his impressive background includes positions at Chateau d’Yquem and Gruaud-Larose as well as projects in Chile, Spain and Washington State. But it was the terroir of Stags’ Leap that drew him to California.

Christophe grew up just outside of Sauternes in Bordeaux, where his grandfather was a Cellar Master. He spent his childhood immersed in the culture of wine, and followed his love for wine and science to the Institut d’OEnologie in Bordeaux. After forays in wine sales, wine graduate school, and seven years retailing winemaking equipment, Christophe decided it was time to start making wine again. While visiting some friends at Chateau d’Yquem, he was offered the job of Cellar Master. His position encompassed everything from guiding tours to making the wine. “I was very passionate about this job because Sauternes is part of my culture; it was an exceptional thing to touch this unique wine.” Projects in Chile, Spain, Bordeaux, and New Zealand followed his 4 year stint with Chateau d’Yquem. “You never stop learning. I have done every job there is to do at a winery from pruning to giving tours. Every single person has an important job, and my role is to connect everyone to the greater purpose.”

Christophe’s winemaking philosophy is informed by the sum of his varied experiences: he makes wine the way he learned in France, to showcase the fruit and not the winemaker’s hand, but he applies a technical understanding of each and every step of the process.