2018 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Cask 23

Community Tasting Note

6 comments have been posted

• Comment posted by sfwinelover1:

  4/5/2023 6:05:00 PM - That sounds about right from my tasting of this. It will be a real banger!

• Comment posted by Mark1npt:

  4/5/2023 6:13:00 PM - sf....is this another one of those '18s that is just a long hauler?

• Comment posted by sfwinelover1:

  4/5/2023 9:14:00 PM - This one is definitely a long hauler. The vintage generally? I need more info and leave that stuff to people like you, csimm, Lite, msu, mjp, etc. As you’re probably sick of reading in my TNs, I tend to buy, and drink from back vintages, although I have bought, mostly based on reviews and others’ TNs, ‘18s and ‘19s in the past few years. Since I typically don’t drink young, my best way of assessing vintages in real time has been tasting events and trips to the various wine countries. Since the pandemic, I can count the number of each of those on one hand apiece, probably with fingers left over. I’m drinking a lot of ‘12s and ‘13s, as well as many ‘04-‘10s (and the occasional bottle from my favorite century, the 20th, not the 19th), and while I get something past prime now and again, I’m mostly delighted with what I’m getting. I’m thinking that this will be in a good spot somewhere in the ‘28-‘30 years, then hold well long after I—and I suspect you—am alive. The hope is that it gets there before I’m dribbling wine down my bib, or worse. I’m thinking positively! Cheers!

• Comment posted by Mark1npt:

  4/6/2023 7:17:00 AM - sf.....your drinking habits/logic parallel my own, these days. Just had a '97 Montelena the other night that was beautiful and I am continually on the hunt to backfill my cellar. Coravin'd an '18 BCellars Ehrlich last night as I wanted to check in on it and while hedonistically good, it's still tight and years away from full pleasure. At harvest in '18 I figured the '18s would be on par with the '13s as far as drinkability/longevity and to me many of the '13s are only now showing their stuff so we'll have at least 5 more years of waiting on these '18s and I fear maybe even more! I picked up only one bottle of this Stag's at a big discount, so it'll sit for years.....

• Comment posted by sfwinelover1:

  4/6/2023 8:16:00 AM - I’m not sure what your big discount was, but I bought after tasting at the winery, a tasting a friend had set up. His brother in law works at SL, so we got the employee price, half off their retail of $325. I think it hung well with the Clif Ledes and Keplingers I tasted that day (I bought a K Oakville for $180, didn’t buy any of the CLs), and the Vice Versas (ex the Mag 7, which was 2x+ the price) but was a half step below the Arrow & Branch SVDs I tasted in October (I bought their VHR for $250, among other things). At full on retail, I wouldn’t be a buyer, as that’s more or less the price in the secondary I’ve gotten high quality (i.e., not Rothwell Hyde), good vintage bottlings from Abreu and Colgin, which I’d take over it any day. Even the $162.50 is just a bit below what I’ve paid for my Ovids (and I paid less for the ‘05), Flacs and QCs, and I’m not sure it will be as good as any of those, but it will at least be in the conversation, to whatever extent you can evaluate a wine that’s so young and balled up at the moment.

• Comment posted by Mark1npt:

  4/6/2023 9:27:00 AM - I got the bottle at $139....the only one they had. Trying to buy older versions of just about everything I like now, since they cost so much less than current versions and like you, I'm not getting any younger.