Special Reserve Selection Cabernet Sauvignon (1978)

About this wine

This is a Cabernet Sauvignon from Stonegate, vintage 1978, produced in Napa Valley, noted historically as part of Stonegate’s Special Reserve program. On the nose expect mature black cherry and dried plum, with cedar, leather, and a touch of forest floor that come with extended bottle age. The palate presents concentrated dark fruit flavors, an underlying spice note, and firm but integrated tannins, the texture leaning toward smooth with a lingering dry finish. The wine was originally part of Stonegate’s reserve line which drew fruit from notable sites such as Steiner Vineyard and other Napa blocks, and the winery aged many of its reserve wines in oak prior to release. The 1978 vintage in California produced ripe, concentrated Cabernets that have shown good longevity when cellared properly, and this bottle reflects that pattern with developed tertiary aromatics and a sturdy acidity that supports the wine. Additional contemporary listings and auction records confirm the wine’s existence and classification as a Napa Cabernet from Stonegate’s Special Reserve Selection.

About the grape

Cabernet Sauvignon originated in southwest France as a natural cross of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and became the backbone of Bordeaux, prized for its thick skins and tannic structure. By the 1970s Napa Valley growers had adopted it widely, planting both massale selections and imported clonal material to exploit warm days and cool nights for ripe tannins and concentrated fruit. For the 1978 Stonegate Special Reserve Selection the winery sourced Napa fruit from its Calistoga area holdings and designated a reserve bottling, a practice that typically uses the ripest, most concentrated lots from selected vineyard blocks and older vine plantings. Viticulturally this variety in Napa is grown on well drained soils with close canopy management and careful crop control to balance sugar and tannin for wines built for aging.

Quick facts

• 🍇 Some 1978 bottles were made from Steiner Vineyard fruit, meaning this Special Reserve came from a single notable site rather than a generic Napa blend.
• 🍷 In historic blind flights the 1978 Stonegate showed up as the plushest and ripest wine, praised for surprisingly velvety, age-softened tannins.
• 🏡 The Stonegate winery property was later repurposed (became Twomey’s Calistoga home in the 2000s), so bottles from the original Stonegate era are snapshots of a different chapter on that site.
• 📜 This bottle predates the formal Napa Valley AVA (established 1983), so it’s a genuine pre-AVA Napa collectible with older-style regional labeling.
• 🏷️ Surviving 1978 Special Reserve Selection bottles mainly surface through auctions and specialist dealers rather than retail, making them rare little treasures for collectors and tastings decades later.

Palate profile

Producer

Stonegate Winery, established in 1973 by Jim Spaulding in Calistoga, California, was among the pioneering wineries that contributed to Napa Valley's rise as a premier wine region. Initially sourcing grapes from various North Coast vineyards, the winery later focused on its own Spaulding Vineyard on Diamond Mountain, known for its volcanic soils and unique microclimates. In 2003, the Duncan family, owners of Silver Oak Cellars, acquired Stonegate's facilities to house their Twomey Cellars brand, integrating the historic site into their operations. The original Stonegate Winery building, designed to resemble a turn-of-the-century wine barn, featured a barrel cellar, tasting room, and production facility with a capacity of up to 80,000 gallons per year.