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Poetry in a Bottle
Elegant... brilliant color.... lush and velvety.... fine cherry and red berry flavors... soft tannins.... Those notes capture Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stags Leap AVA. In the summer, these jagged, southwest-facing hills, stretching from the northeastern Napa City limits to the outer edge of Yountville, are toasted by the hot afternoon sun but cooled by the nighttime fog that rolls in off the San Pablo Bay. This climate along with well-drained alluvial and volcanic soils are the reason why Stags Leap wineries focus almost exclusively on Cabernet – the district works magic with the Bordeaux varietals.
Purchasing vineyards and a winery near Yountville in 2002 makes Cliff Lede (pronounced Lay-dee) a newcomer to the Napa Valley, yet he grasped instinctively that his estate’s raison d’etre was to make transcendent Cabernet. With his vineyard manager, David Abreu, he has revived or replanted the vineyards and divided them into blocks according to varietal as well as subtle shifts in soil type, clonal or rootstock selection. The 60-acre estate comprises two diverse sets of vineyard. On the valley floor, the Twin Peaks Ranch surrounds the winery and contains all five of the major Bordeaux varietals. The Poetry Vineyard – mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and a bit of Cab Franc and Petit Verdot – is situated on the hills that rise up from the opposite side of the Silverado Trail.
In the state-of-the-art, gravity-flow winery, grapes are meticulously hand-sorted and the wines may be fermented in egg-shaped cement tanks as well as more traditional stainless steel tanks and oak barrels. More significantly, each vineyard block will be fermented separately, ensuring that the particular qualities of each small patch of soil will have a chance to blossom before the final blend is made. Though many of the choices made in the vineyards and winery are labor intensive and costly, Cliff Lede is willing to make them in order to fashion the sort of wine expected from a part of the Earth as special as Stags Leap.
Wine MakerChristopher Tynan
CountryUSA
RegionCalifornia
Inescapably charming, Cliff Lede’s Sauvignon Blanc enchants the nose and explodes on the palate. A key to the wine’s complexity lies in sourcing from both mature and old-vine vineyards in Calistoga, Rutherford, Stags Leap, and Carneros. But adding Semillon, as they do in Bordeaux, also gives this wine roundness and heft. In 2023, Semillon comprised 23% of the blend. According to winemaker Chris Tynan, Semillon adds fatness and richness to the otherwise laser-sharp acidity of Sauvignon Blanc and opens up the aromas to include richer notes of creme brûlée and lemon curd. This is an elegant and refreshing wine with citrus, green apple, spring flowers, and orange blossoms coming together in a mouthful that is rich and fleshy but structured with minerality and fresh acidity.
Cliff Lede’s exemplary SLV Cab is an homage to the left-bank wines of Bordeaux. A blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot, the wine was sourced from two estate vineyards: the Twin Peaks Ranch Vineyard, surrounding the winery, and the Poetry Vineyard on the eastern slopes looking down. The combination of ancient riverbed and rocky, volcanic soils gives the wine depth, complexity, and a Graves-like minerality that’s characteristic of the Stags Leap District. The Wine Enthusiast said it “substantially over-delivers on its price point, presenting a dark fruit profile, generous tannin and oak, and an expansive full-bodied style.” A wine this rich would pair well with steak au poivre, ragout of beef or lamb, or braised duck breast. Open and decant a couple of hours before serving.
“… and the wine is bottled poetry,” said Robert Louis Stevenson on a visit to the Napa Valley in the 1880s. The same can be said for Cliff Lede’s Cabernet produced from low-yielding, old vines growing on a hillside in the Stags Leap District. Overlooking the winery, the Poetry Vineyard boasts a southwest exposure, guaranteeing not only a beautiful view but warm late-afternoon sun. The vineyard is planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon with a couple blocks devoted to Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc. The well-drained volcanic soil forces vines to focus more energy on seeking moisture deep in the earth than on producing grapes. As a result. the berries are small and packed with flavor. The winery believes this wine is “the highest expression of our Stags Leap District estate vineyard and all of its irresistible components are well apportioned and fabulously integrated even at such at young age.” Lisa Perotti Brown awarded 100 points to the 2021 Poetry saying, “the medium bodied palate is so tightly wound at this youthful stage, slowly revealing layer upon layer of fragrant black and red fruits with loads of mineral sparks, supported by beautifully fine-grained yet firm tannins and seamless acidity, finishing with epic length and a whole firework display of mineral and floral notes. This is gorgeous. ”