2023 Martellotto Bar None Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District 750 ml

The northeast part of Stags Leap District is home to some of Napa’s heaviest hitters.

Shafer’s Hillside Select comes from these slopes. So did the wine that won the Judgment of Paris in ‘76, from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars—they make both of their signature bottlings, SLV and Fay, from the area. And Cliff Lede’s $375 Poetry is farmed nearby as well.

In that prized mix is the NDA-protected vineyard that Greg Martellotto tapped for his 2023 Bar None Cabernet—though where exactly, he will not say. Not that we care. This wine clearly comes from an outstanding source, not to mention one of Napa’s greatest ever vintages. It’s polished and elegant, with supple structure and soaring aromatics, a Cabernet with blue-chip Stags Leap blood in its veins. 

Greg is proof that tasting a ton of wines is perhaps the most important training you can have as a winemaker. Sure, he has a biology degree from Stanford—he's a former D-1 soccer player to boot—but Greg’s winemaking choices and philosophy come from the fact that he’s done basically every job in the wine industry. Importation, sales, distribution, cellar? Check, check, check, and check.

Greg still draws a paycheck from the importer that he founded, and still spends several months every year in Europe tasting wines—some quick math puts Greg at tasting over 4,000 bottles per annum—which is invaluable. He’s a walking encyclopedia of taste and knows the wine market about as well as anyone we’ve met.

When Greg crafts wines for his own label, Martellotto Winery, he’s applying acute knowledge about what else is out there—and how good his own bottles have to be to deliver serious value. Integral to that is sourcing, and his long history in the biz has given him the kind of connections that money can’t buy.

For the Bar None Cabernet, that means grapes from a big-time site in Stags Leap, given white-glove treatment in the cellar. In 2023, the site enjoyed one of the greatest vintages in Napa’s history, a nearly perfect growing season from start to finish. Lisa Perrotti-Brown, the former Editor-in-Chief of Parker’s Wine Advocate, called it a “Once in a Lifetime” year. You can taste it in every sip.