After a two-year mission commissioned by American businessman John Goelet to find a new site with potential for making world-class wines, French-born winemaker Bernard Portet found chose what would eventually be called the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley for its cool evenings and terrain. The 150-acre parcel that Goelet purchases became Clos du Val, a "small estate of a small Valley." Producing classically styled wines of balance, elegance and complexity has been the winery's goal ever since. This 1978 is a part of California's winemaking history. Clos du Val's wines have been shown to age exceptionally well. 92 points James Laube: "An excellent wine from a great vintage, this is a richly concentrated, deeply perfumed Cabernet loaded with sharply focused black cherry, currant, cedar and anise flavors that are complex and deep, with an underlying sense of elegance. This wine still has a great future." (Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide - California's Great Cabernets, 1989, pg 132)