Who in their right mind cellar-ages a wine for 10 long years, not allowing the sale of a single bottle until the wine has matured to the point of sublime perfection; assuring that the recipient does not have to wait to taste the full potential of the wine? Wine fanatics like us, that's who.
This is our flagship wine. Crafted from grapes planted in 1965 in the Stags Leap District, Dick Steltzner and his children cared for these grapes the old fashioned way without chemicals or pesticides. 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 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
typically taste the wine in each barrel and select the best eight barrels to use in the finished wine. In 2011, we only bottled the best TWO barrels. After we bottle that wine, we allowed the bottles to remain undisturbed in our cold Napa Valley cellars for six 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. Don't wait too long to enjoy it.