2023 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon

98 POINTS: The S.L.V. is a 34-acre estate planted primarily to Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in 1970, famed for producing the triumphant 1973 Cabernet at the Paris Tasting. Its volcanic and alluvial soils offer excellent drainage, translating into wines of grip and structure, and the 2023 vintage is downright masterful. This is the classic iron fist in a velvet glove: the aromatics are subtle and restrained, belying the power and structure that unfold on the palate. Black-fruited and deeply layered, with sagebrush and ironstone notes, the wine builds with robust blackberry fruit and ultra-fine cocoa-powder tannins that provide a perfect foundation for the mineral-laced fruit. Polished, suave, and gorgeous in its youth, this is a wine that will age gracefully, developing beautifully nuanced complexity for deCades to come. Fermented entirely in stainless steel and aged for 21 months in 100% new French oak.