We are very excited to announce that our 2009 Nice Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon won the Gold Medal in TexSom & Texas Monthly’s International Wine Competition. TexSom is one of the world’s foremost organizations of Master Sommeliers. This high honor came from some of the most acclaimed wine experts in the industry – Master Sommeliers – and is a testament to the quality and cellar-worthy character of this flagship wine.

When Ian was in Sommelier Training with Master Sommelier David Glancy, he had the opportunity to meet some of the top grape growers and wine makers in Napa Valley.  He learned an important lesson first-hand from the best in the industry: In order to make a great Cabernet Sauvignon, you cannot cut any corners and there are no shortcuts. Ian knew that his first wine had to be made to exacting standards. So when he set out to create the very first Nice wine, he took a page from the heralded “Cult Wine” winemakers at Scarecrow, Bond, Araujo and Screaming Eagle. That playbook requires painstaking, hands-on, labor intensive winemaking.

We hand-picked and hand-sorted every grape that was selected for this bottle. We fermented the grapes in open-top, French oak barrels and “punched down” the grape skins into the juice by hand every day during the fermentation. We closely monitor each barrel during the fermentation for cleanliness, temperature and brix levels to insure a steady and uninterrupted fermentation. All of these practices increase the level of concentration, complexity and quality of the finished wine. We then aged the wine in ten new and second use French oak barrels for a full 24 months. At the end of the barrel aging, we taste the wine in each barrel and select the best eight barrels to use in the finished wine. After we bottle that wine, we allow the bottles to remain undisturbed in our cold Napa Valley cellars for a minimum of two additional years so that the wine is supple and smooth when released.                                                               

We suggest decanting this wine for one hour and then serving it with grilled or braised meats & game. Flavors of black cherry, cassis, cigar box, and cherry cordial make this wine irresistible! Don't wait too long to enjoy it. Buy a case in one of our handsome, etched, wooden boxes to add to your cellar before they are all sold out! We only made 8 barrels of this vintage. Wooden crates available for three or six bottle purchases.

Select vintages are available in large format and in three-vintage verticals. 1.5L magnums and 3L are presented in a beautiful custom wooden box. 6L bottles also available. Please contact us for more details.