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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 94.5 pts. and median of 95 pts. in 254 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by CoastCabCritic on 10/15/2023: Enjoyed overlooking Sedona and this bottle unfurled with noted of blackberry and dark fruit, not over ripe, hint of wet stone and still a fair amount of life left but it’s in a good place now. (967 views) | | | Tasted by peternelson on 12/17/2022 & rated 91 points: Good shape, very ripe, big, gooey. BB xmas party (2102 views) | | | Tasted by steinersing on 11/19/2022 & rated 92 points: Sweet and rich. Bigger than I remembered it. (1951 views) | | | Tasted by jsebiri on 8/24/2022: Still very well done. , nose and sweet richness. 10 days later was drinking even better , not even sure why the wine was vac'd up on my bar but it was , lucky i guess. (2255 views) | | | Tasted by ASMB on 2/1/2022 & rated 92 points: Drinking great. (2986 views) | | | Tasted by jsebiri on 1/2/2022: Big Cali cab , some spine , rich nose. Well done. (2318 views) | | | Tasted by shaferguy91 on 10/18/2021 & rated 92 points: Decanted 1 hour. Not up to normal HSS standards. Still good but I expect great from Shafer HSS. (2243 views) | | | Tasted by Silicon Valley Wine Club on 9/14/2021 & rated 94 points: Decanted for an hour then stelarted consuming for the next 3 hours. It improved over time.
This was my last bottle of this vintage. Would recomend decanting for 3-4 hours prior.
The nose was great. Mouth was full body ripe fruit with a long finish.
I do believe this vintage is towards the end of the drink window.
Enjoy (2199 views) | | | Tasted by texaswinelover on 7/14/2021: I think most people enjoyed this wine the most. No official vote but praise seemed to be heaped on this bottle. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wonderful ripe fruit, balance and acid. Clean long finish. First bottle I’ve opened in a long time. (2181 views) | | | Tasted by Nutty08 on 7/10/2021 & rated 95 points: Served blind. Bid and bold, but everything in balance. Still seems rather youthful with a core fo dark black fruits, flint, and smoke. Just the faintest hint of heat. I was pretty sure this was a Montebello as I felt I got a hint of dill mixed with the black fruit and it was still quite tannic. I haven't had HSS in years--and this was quite impressive. Don't see it getting better but it certainly isn't fading anytime soon. (1916 views) | | | Tasted by mlawren1 on 12/31/2020 & rated 95 points: Deep dark and inky with plums, cherries and currants. Finishes with some chocolate and leather. (2572 views) | | | Tasted by Galrob on 12/12/2020: Given to neighbors (2334 views) | | | Tasted by Millennial Drinkers on 6/21/2020: NFN: similar to a few years back with more layers to it. Great wine for Father’s Day. (3460 views) | | | Tasted by davidandrose on 4/9/2020: I was concerned about this when I opened the bottle, but this gained structure and weight over 2.5 hours. Still softer than expected, but this particular bottle may not have been handled properly. Will monitor the next bottle closely. (3219 views) | | | Tasted by jsmorris707 on 2/21/2020 & rated 97 points: Similar to prior note after a 2.5 hour double decant; outstanding & again continued to improve throughout an outstanding meal at Buccan ( went beautifully with the black truffle tagliatelle), my experience with these 2 bottles is that this will still improve (need to get more!) (3593 views) | | | Tasted by jsmorris707 on 11/16/2019 & rated 98 points: Double decanted for 2.5 hrs, deep ruby with no brick, black cherry with a touch of vanilla, med. tannins, very long finish; outstanding & loved by the BB group, drink with good decant or hold (3420 views) | | | Tasted by jjcoola on 11/3/2019 & rated 98 points: Outstanding. Drinking extremely well right now. (3051 views) | | | Tasted by DrBad on 8/10/2019 & rated 95 points: Velvety smooth. Long finish. Great wine. (3010 views) | | | Tasted by bookert on 6/25/2019 & rated 89 points: Good concentration but unbalanced, out of step with the usual Shafer taste profile (2861 views) | | | Tasted by Som-Geo on 6/9/2019 & rated 95 points: Had taken a hiatus from Hillside Select so thought I would try a younger, not-spectacular vintage to hopefully renew my interest. Mission accomplished! Gorgeous wine, still plenty of baby-fat but a class act in every way. Velvety texture and beautiful balance, long finish - nose of all the classic Hillside Select tasting notes. The more decanting the better. (2697 views) | | | Tasted by SMHalps on 4/26/2019 & rated 95 points: Opened but not decanted as part of a Shafer night at a NYC Steakhouse with my wine group. It probably sat for 90 minutes before we poured it. We had it alongside the 2013 One Point Five. For 7 out of 8 of us, this was the WOTN. It has developed some nice secondary flavors and it is tasting very refined. The fruit has died down so that now it plays a supporting role. Long long finish. A real treat. (2609 views) | | | Tasted by nm10 on 12/25/2018 & rated 95 points: Decanted two hours and drank with Christmas dinner prime rib and Yorkshire puddings. Deep purple with little bricking at the edges. Delicious peppery and youthful nose, but all mouth-coating cassis on the palate. This was a huge wine, but yet seemed balanced. I dare say it improved over the three hours that I drank it, and I bumped it a point from the 94 when I first sipped. The finish lasted almost a minute. (3116 views) | | | Tasted by Cow Town on 11/10/2018 & rated 95 points: Just a lovely wine. Perfectly balanced, modern but not over the top, Napa Cab. Not sure how long it will age, but in a great place right now. (3054 views) | | | Tasted by Francophile1 on 11/9/2018 & rated 92 points: Tasted blind and most definitely a cult Cabernet. The group was all over the place... Pride Reserve, Bond, Maiden, Schrader, Spottswoode. But in fact... Hillside Select. If drinking now, pair with a prime ribeye. As for me, I will let mine cellar for a while longer. (2668 views) | | | Tasted by rocknroller on 9/24/2018 & rated 93 points: Pre Arthur Buck Concert Dinner (Butcher and the Boar, Mpls): Deep purple color. Slow ox for about 3 hours. Drank 1+ glass over an hour plus. This was impressive out of the gate. The nose oozes fresh cut fuzzy cedar, creme de cassis, graphite, dark berries, oak and spice. The palate is quite concentrated, pretty black fruits, satiny textures, pencil, tobacco and oak with a long finish. This also seems to fall off considerably over an hour to show m9re oak and a little heat that was not apparent previously. This too suffered from our limited pairing options. (3134 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By William Kelley
Decanter, Shafer Hillside Select Vertical (6/30/2017)
(Shafer, Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Stags Leap District, California, USA, Red) Subscribe to see review text. | 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. | By Michael Godel
WineAlign (3/22/2016)
(Shafer Napa Stag Leap Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Linda Murphy
JancisRobinson.com (6/23/2008)
(Shafer, Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Stags Leap District Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, May/June 2007, IWC Issue #132
(Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select Stags Leap District) Subscribe to see review text. | By Richard Jennings
RJonWine.com (2/23/2012)
(Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select) Opaque black red violet color; deep black fruit, ripe berry, black currant nose; tasty, black currant, berry, black fruit, dark chocolate palate with sweet, plush tannins; medium-plus finish 93+ points 93 points |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Decanter and Vinous and WineAlign and JancisRobinson.com and RJonWine.com. (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 2012.2003 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select They drink 2003 Shafer Hillside Select at the White House.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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