Signature Aviation Spring 2025

SPECIAL PROMOTION

RAISING THE STANDARD

over 94,000 acres of Napa County are now protected. In 2024, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars becamethe fi rst estate in Napa Valley’s Stags Leap District — one of 17 distinct sub-appellations in Napa Valley — to be Regenerative Organic Certi fi ed®, the world’s highest organic agriculture standard. A rigorous three-year process led to Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ two historic vineyards — Stag’s Leap Vineyard (S.L.V.) and FAY Vineyard — being recognized by the Regenerative Organic Alliance. But that’s only Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ most recent achievement. The historic vineyard, perhaps best-known for helping to put Napa Valley on the map by taking the top honors at a 1976 blind tasting against some of the biggest wines in Bordeaux, also holds a whole host of certi fi cations. It’s been a Napa Green Certi fi ed winery since 2017 and was commended by the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance in 2022 and 2023. The rise in consumer expectations, particularly regarding sustainable practices, is having a wholly positive e ff ect on wine-growing regions like Napa Valley. It just takes leaders like Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars to take the fi rststep. stagsleapwinecellars.com

For winemakers globally, the bar has never been higher. The average wine drinker knows more about production than ever before, as an industry once shrouded in mystery becomes more accessible. True oenophiles — those who can identify a Californian cabernet sauvignon from a Bordeaux with a sni ff — are becoming far more commonplace. The result is that winemakers have had to up their game; the average consumer now demands far more from producers when it comes to transparent and sustainable practices. For many vintners, the transition to sustainable growing has been far from a smooth process. Yet, for forward

thinkers like Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, who were growing sustainably long before the recent rise in interest, the process couldn’t have been simpler. In 1990, the founder of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Warren Winiarski, placed 46 acres of Stag’s Leap Vineyard and the surrounding land under a conservation easement with the Land Trust of Napa County, becoming the fi rst vintner in Napa Valley to do so. This conservation easement protects agricultural land from overdevelopment and guarantees that large proportions of land will remain rural — a great bene fi t to the natural environment. Many have followed Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ lead, and

TAKE THREE///

S.L.V. ESTATE CABERNET SAUVIGNON The bottle that changed it all: The 2020 S.L.V. is a continuation of the 1973’s legacy — expect concentrated dark fruit fl avors with elegant tannins alongside impressive structure and a pleasant minerality. $250 FAY CABERNET SAUVIGNON Sourced from a vineyard fi rst planted by Nathan Fay in 1961, the fi rst Cabernet Sauvignon planted in the Stag’s Leap District. Expect complex aromas of blue fruit, licorice and fl oral spice with fresh fruit fl avors on the palate. $200 CASK 23 CABERNET SAUVIGNON Combining the perfume notes of FAY and the dark fruit and structure of S.L.V., Cask 23 is harvested fromthe fi nest blocks in each vineyard. The result is a wine with a vibrant mouthfeel and blackberry and currant fl avors. $325

Fromtop Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars lead the way and over 94,000 acres of Napa County are now protected; Guillermo Perez, vineyard manager, andMarcus Notaro, director of winemaking