The 1990 Cask 23 exhibits a tell-tale bouquet of sweet, jammy cassis, herbs, coffee, olives, cedar, and chocolate. The Cask 23 always offers one of the most complex and enticing Cabernet-based bouquets in California. Soft, medium to full-bodied, harmonious flavors, with well-integrated tannin and low acidity make for a generous, velvety-textured mouthful of classically proportioned, compelling Cabernet. Like most of the finest vintages of Cask 23, it is delicious young, but possesses the cunning ability to age effortlessly for 12-15 or more years.
The flagship wine of Stags Leap is Cask 23 (1000 cases produced each vintage), now officially a proprietary red wine with the words Cabernet Sauvignon dropped from the label. No Cask 23 was produced in 1988 or 1989, but the 1990 is gorgeous. The Cabernet Sauvignon-Cask 23 continues to display one of the most distinctive and exotic bouquets of any California Cabernet-based wine.
Proprietor Warren Winiarski produces Cabernet Sauvignons of uncommon delicacy, complexity, and harmony. Although this property went into a slump from 1979-1983, there have been no misses since.