Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Napa Valley (California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars showed the world the quality of California wines when its 1973 Cask 23 came in first, beating four Bordeaux first-growths, in the now famous 1976 Paris blind tasting.  Their single vineyard estate Cabernets, labeled Fay Vineyard, S.L.V. and Cask 23, are still on everyone’s short list of great California wine.  And the prices of those wines ($100-200 a bottle) reflect their quality and demand.  Their Artemis label represents a blend of made from their estate vineyards and purchased fruit and is a terrific introduction to the classy and restrained style of Stag’s Leap.  Like all of Stag’s Leap’s wines, Artemis is concentrated and focused, but not overdone.  It delivers a splendid combination of dark cassis-like flavors intertwined with attractive mineraly, almost tarry, elements.  Stylish and long, it’s remarkably enjoyable now, but its balance and the history of the producer suggests it will evolve nicely with cellaring.