“Perfumey,” says Marcus Notaro, winemaker for Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, nosing a glass of his newly released 2015 FAY Cabernet Sauvignon ($150, cask23.com). “Spice. Red fruit. Boysenberry.” Indeed, this bottling—the 25th vintage of the coveted single- vineyard offering—has all of those in spades. Stag’s Leap began in 1970, and, by 1976, in what is known as the Judgment of Paris, its ’73 cabernet beat entries from Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Haut- Brion in a blind tasting. And its wines have been a staple of muscular steakhouse lists ever since. They age well: At a recent vertical tasting led by Notaro, FAY bottles from 1995 and 1999 stole the show over their younger siblings— though the 2015 drinks beautifully now and reveals all the characteristics that make FAY a cult favorite. “We’re celebrating the personality of the vineyard,” Notaro says. “That’s what makes it special.”
Originally published in the September issue of Silicon Valley
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