Stag's Leap Winery

Restaurateur and builder, Carl Doumani, bought Stag's Leap Winery in 1970, essentially reviving a moribund winery in ruins.  He was able to restore the historic buildings on the property while enjoying the early 1970's winemaking zeitgeist, creating a product competitive with the Napa standards of the time.

The Stag's Leap District AVA wouldn't be created for another thirty years but it's notoriety was established when Stag's Leap Wine Cellars won the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting.  By besting the great classified Bordeaux everyone assumed would win, a new found prominence for the Stag's Leap name benefitted Stag's Leap Winery.  Sales boomed as the Winery was regularly confused with the justifiably acclaimed Wine Cellars.  

The Carl Doumani-Stag's Leap Winery era ended in 1996 when Treasury Estates bought the winery.  Coincidentally, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars would be sold within a year to Constellation.  (And so it goes - The great estate wineries of California fade into history; replaced by mass market efforts from industry giants intended to be just good enough  to keep the dollars coming in.)   

Today the same Atlanta distributor represents both labels and we are told Stag's Leap Winery is the better product.  So kudos to Treasury.