1978 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (12) Avg Score: 92.4 points

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  2/5/2023 - Cailles wrote: 94 Points

  30x California 1978: So many wines from this great Californian vintage at the age of 45 certainly qualifies as a “once in a lifetime” event. A few observations: 1) The quality was very high (almost all my ratings above 90pts). And only four faulty wines (2x corked, 2x over the hill/flawed, sadly those two were the Ridge Monte Bello and the Phelps Insignia). 2) The wines are ready to drink, the tannins have melted but the tension and freshness remain high - across the board. 3) There is still lots of fruit left and I was surprised how most wines didn’t show lots of tertiary aromas (find me the Bdx 1982 without tertiary aromas!). IMO, more than a handful of the wines could continue to improve for a few years. 4) Style wise, these are obviously quite different from today’s Napa wines with much less ripeness and more mineral accents. But hardly any wine we had would be mistaken for a Bordeaux in a blind tasting (unlike 80s/90s Dominus). 5) Best reds: Inglenook Limited Cask, Beaulieu GDL Reserve, Stags Leap Cask 23 4.5l (all 96pts), Heitz Bella Oaks, Simi Reserve, Stag’s Leap Cask 23 0.75l (all 95pts). The best wine overall, however, was the magical Late Harvest Riesling from Phelps (98pts).
  
  TN: The nose is not super well defined but the wine explodes on the palate with a young, fresh, ripe dark fruit core, earthy notes, some tobacco, herbs. Good tension with well-rounded tannins, tension and poise. Feels clearly younger. A great showing. We had four Stag’s Leap Cellar bottlings. All wines showed lots of power and substance and felt much younger and I believe that all these wine will continue to improve further in the cellar. The winner was the Cask 23 4.5 liter bottle (96pts) as the most complex and well-defined wine with its 0.75 liter sibling (95pts) just a touch behind with a little bit less of everything. The Estate Cabernet and the Lot 2 (both rated 94pts) were just a tad behind but still belonged to the winners of this tasting.

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  1/28/2023 - G_H wrote: 92 Points

  1978 California Cabernet Horizontal: Cranberries, redcurrant, medium bodied but very elegant and still drinking very well

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  1/28/2023 - sirpat00 wrote: 93 Points

  California 1978 (Zunfthaus zur Waag, Zurich): Grand tasting of 1978 California wines, mostly from Napa. Main takeaways: i/ surprisingly high quality on average for wines that were not intended for such long-term aging with plenty of primary fruit left, ii/ but within the detail nonetheless a broad range with the worst few suffering from clear signs of fatigue while the best showed hardly age, iii/ top wines were Phelps Cab Sauv (97), Firestone Cab Sauv (95), and Beaulieu George de Latour Private Reserve (95). Full list sorted by score included in the tasting story.
  
  Tasting note:
  Extracted ripe fruit, only hints of aging notes, a bit of eucalyptus or mint. Almost Rum-like features to be found here. A well-balanced and well-structured palate with a youthful feel to it. Simple but solid.

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  12/30/2022 - andtheodor wrote: 93 Points

  You like classic Cali Cabernet? This is for you. Cedar, plump sweet currant fruit, wisps of mint and other herbs combine in the sauna, so friendly and sunny, but serious and powerful too. A beautiful time capsule.

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  8/11/2022 - talbot61 wrote:

  At Skinner pre-auction tasting, Newton, Mass.: My first impression was that the wine smells of glue. I got past that and found a mellow wine with fully integrated tannins, not huge, pleasant to drink but certainly past its prime.

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