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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92.1 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 32 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 12/17/2016 & rated 91 points: Another Saturday at Chevalier...Mostly Blind (Chevalier Fine Wines - Chicago IL): Cellared well since release by its original owner. Black fruit, nicely fresh for its age. Spice and liqueur notes, with everything in wonderful harmony. (5282 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 11/18/2016 & rated 91 points: Acker Pre-Auction Tasting Wines & In-Auction Dinner Wines (Zuma - New York NY): Tasting, brief note. Nicely fresh black fruit, ripe with liqueur notes, but well proportioned and balanced. (5092 views) | | | Tasted by thelostverse on 9/25/2014 & rated 93 points: Opened at Anvil for April's birthday. Showing no signs of visible age with an inky dark color throughout. Plum notes with a hint of green pepper and herbs. Elegant finish with fully integrated tannins. (5744 views) | | | Tasted by AllRed on 9/25/2014 & rated 94 points: Opened by TLV for his daughter's birthday and paired with Korean spiced lamb chops. Notes of cedar, plum, black currants and dusty earth. Medium-bodied and completely integrated, featuring flavors of black fruit, herbs and licorice. Wonderfully balanced, finishing with good length. (6041 views) | | | Tasted by Burgundy Al on 8/26/2013 & rated 90 points: Birthday Celebration (Del Frisco - Chicago IL): Brief note. Very fat and lush, still mostly fresh, but not well centered. (8171 views) | | | Tasted by Wine_lvr on 7/1/2013 & rated 88 points: Shafer Hillside Select Vertical Tasting (Switzerland): Brick color. Malt and Vermouth in the Nose. Quite medicinal in flavor with only a bit of fruit left. This wine is past its prime. (5233 views) | | | Tasted by CJM on 4/22/2013 & rated 94 points: Right at the end of its life - wonderful wine still with lively fruit and deep, rich flavors (4183 views) | | | Tasted by 1961Vintage on 3/3/2013 & rated 95 points: Great fruit. Impeccable balance. Some may say a bit thin for a wine of this caliber. I would simply say great finesse. This wine is in a great spot right now. Let is breathe for at least an hour and amazing! Not a hint of bricking around the edges. (2742 views) | | | Tasted by rh marcin on 8/9/2012 & rated 90 points: - Brick color with medium forming legs. It's overly acidic with a medium/full body. Narrow texture with a medium finish - Drank 8/9/12 with dinner of pork ribs and green vegetables. Good body, yet little aroma. Slightly acidic, but good after couple hours. (3365 views) | | | Tasted by txfireman on 11/12/2010 & rated 90 points: Starting to lose its structure. Tasted side by side with 94 and 05 HSS.
Murky but definable with the tannins. But loose in comparison to the 05. (3482 views) | | | Tasted by beezer6 on 10/16/2010 & rated 94 points: Saturday Tasting Group (Knightsbridge Wine Shop (Northbrook, IL)): Plump aged New World cult styling. Purple fruit, inky, plummy blueberry pie. Super creamy - awesome mouth feel.
A little bit of an enjoyable green streak as well. Balanced fine tannins. Big and delicious. A strong feminine floral component.
Really pretty soft opulent qualities. A fantastic rich expressive wine. Shows a real sense of terroir - nice ripened mountain fruit. Beautiful.
One of the best Napa Cabs from one of the best vintage of the 90's. (3876 views) | | | Tasted by psmith on 10/16/2010: Dark fruits. Welcome green notes show a distinctly classic style. Soft front. Medium-grain tannins. Middle aged, but will last. Very nice. (3199 views) | | | Tasted by MarkC on 11/21/2009: Mötley Crü does '90/'91 California Cabernet Sauvignon (Steve Williams): 1990 Shafer Hillside Select: Mostly cedar on the nose, with hints of fruit and spice. Plum was the most noticeable flavor on the palate. Good balance, but ultimately a bit underwhelming. (Initially, this was much better, but seemed to drop off pretty quickly after 30 minutes of air.) (4230 views) | | | Tasted by cct on 4/9/2009 & rated 91 points: A touch less dark than the others. With a more red fruited profile. Lovely and less full bodied than the previous wines. Chocolate, cassis, and dark cherries, with some acidic presence on the back end. Tannins nearly resolved and an excellent wine, but for me should be drunk soon. 91 pts. (3393 views) | | | Tasted by noppakit s. on 2/5/2009 & rated 91 points: Elegant, deep, clean and try to be French, old Dominus style. Good structure, fine tannin, medium-bodied, silky texture, delicious and nice finished.
I prefer an American type 1995, 1998.
Very peak at this moment....Drink up. (3649 views) | | | Tasted by loverboy on 2/5/2009 & rated 92 points: Pretty different to my other previous experience of HSS. No oak and creme scent that I normally would expect from this wine. Perhaps this is the older vintage style.
The wine still rock , big, but tends to be on more of the classic style rather than the super CA Cab like the recent vintage. Old world style with the unique nose of herb, black fruits, tobacco, smoke. Big in mouth, with tasty and big finish (3391 views) | | | Tasted by PaulH on 12/5/2007 flawed bottle: Celebrating Repeal Day with Twelve California Wines (1968-2005) (Acme Chophouse, San Francisco, CA): Sadly, this was corked. (5098 views) | | | Tasted by rsepulve on 11/23/2007 & rated 90 points: Bright ruby red with slight bricking on the edges. Complex nose of dark fruits, cedar, tobacco, earth, and mint. Unfortunately, the palate didn't live up to the promise of the beautiful aromatics. Decent fruit on the palate but a touch of a vegetable/herbal quality; the mint/eucalyptus became more prominent over time. A little thin on the mid palate but good finish. Seemed to become tart toward the end of the evening. I'd say this wine has peaked and may be declining. (3639 views) | | | Tasted by rh marcin on 2/13/2007: Drank on plane on way to FL. very hearty, full-bodied cab. (4028 views) | | | Tasted by goofy Yno on 8/11/2006 & rated 88 points: disapointing, woodsy, mint, red fruits. tasted blind and thought it was chilain. (4444 views) | | | Tasted by jsebiri on 4/22/2006 & rated 93 points: this was good , thinking it took a good 50 minutes before starting to faid a bit . But , those 1st 50 mins were very good. PURE CAB. (4717 views) | | | Tasted by jwgauthier on 12/7/2005 & rated 90 points: Dark fruit on the nose with medium body and a slightly hot finish. Still had a touch of tannins. (4987 views) | | | Tasted by PaulH on 3/13/2005 & rated 89 points: Shafer Hillside Select Dinner (Manresa Restaurant, Los Gatos, California USA): A very big and active nose with pronounced eucalyptus, juniper, olive and Bordeaux tobacco. While palate is fairly mouth-filling and smooth, it showed a green herbaceous streak. Elias Fernandez says that the 1990 was filtered aggressively and was picked in what he now regards as an unripe state. By 1993 filtering had been cut back and the grapes were left to ripen longer. (9662 views) | | | Tasted by PaulH on 1/20/2005 & rated 94 points: Wine was decanted twenty minutes before drinking. Although this was the first HSS bottled without filtering, there was minimal sediment.Color was a deep crimson with little or no lightening at the edge. The nose was powerful and complex when poured from the decanter showing smoke and cassis. Forty minutes later, the nose had faded quite a bit. The wine showed a full body filling the mouth with big fruit and balanced but not obtrusive acidity. Finish was long with smooth tannins sweetened by age. A first-class bottle of wine with the bloom of youth still visible. (5424 views) | | | Tasted by dbg on 7/9/2004: Dark red with slight lightening at the rim, no bricking, ripe, sweet,
mature fruit nose with plums and cassis, just a hint of mint, nice
complexity, very smooth palate feel the finish, medium to full body,
flavors follow the nose, some mild soft tannins o (3300 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, Vertical Tasting of Shafer’s Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select (Jul 2016) (7/1/2016)
(Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select Napa Valley) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Shafer Producer website
John Shafer and his family founded Shafer Vineyards, located in the Stags Leap District of the Napa Valley, in 1979. From the Shafers' first wine, a 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon,
their wines have won much acclaim. Today, the Shafers farm 200 acres of vineyard in the Stags Leap District, Carneros and Oak Knoll regions. Their flagship wine, Hillside Select,
is produced from selected blocks of the family's hillside vineyards and is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. They also produce Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay, Merlot, One Point Five
(Cabernet Sauvignon) and Relentless (a Syrah/Petite Sirah blend), which was named #1 wine of the year by Wine Spectator's "Top 100" of 2012.Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Stags Leap District Stags Leap District |
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