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 Vintage1988 Label 10 of 69 
(NOTE: Label borrowed from 1997 vintage.)
TypeRed
ProducerShafer (web)
VarietyMerlot
Designationn/a
Vineyardn/a
CountryUSA
RegionCalifornia
SubRegionNapa Valley
AppellationNapa Valley

Drinking Windows and Values
Drinking window: Drink between 1992 and 1998 (based on 308 user opinions)
Wine Market Journal quarterly auction price: See Shafer Merlot Napa Valley on the Wine Market Journal.

Community Tasting History

Community Tasting Notes (average 90.3 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 4 notes) - hiding notes with no text

 Tasted by mike l. on 6/20/2015 & rated 92 points: the key word here is balance.

this is textbook "what good california fruit and good winemaking can turn into after 28 years". no fancy weird shit, they just took the great merlot and did it right.

sheesh soo soo sooooooo balanced. good on ya shafer! (1582 views)
 Tasted by Brandovious on 6/18/2015 & rated 93 points: Lovely. Mushroom, soil. Well integrated. Did great over a few hours with rib eye. Nice finish. Blown away at $25 in 2015. (1618 views)
 Tasted by bestdamncab on 10/10/1990 & rated 88 points: Tasted 3 Merlots at Primas. Showed rich fruit on the nose, led to a medium, well balanced body, ripe, almost forward fruit, typical Shafer, medium finish and aftertaste. Retail $16.97, my #3. (1778 views)

CellarTracker Wiki Articles (login to edit | view all articles)

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.

Merlot

Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle, the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color of the grape. Its softness and "fleshiness", combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin.

USA

American 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.

California

2021 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)

Napa Valley

St. Helena

 
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