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 Vintage2002 Label 2 of 269 
TypeRed
ProducerShafer (web)
VarietyCabernet Sauvignon
DesignationHillside Select
Vineyardn/a
CountryUSA
RegionCalifornia
SubRegionNapa Valley
AppellationStags Leap District
UPC Code(s)013528400023

Drinking Windows and Values
Drinking window: Drink between 2010 and 2030 (based on 82 user opinions)
Wine Market Journal quarterly auction price: See Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select on the Wine Market Journal.

Community Tasting History

Community Tasting Notes (average 96.6 pts. and median of 97 pts. in 380 notes) - hiding notes with no text

 Tasted by Elkcims on 2/26/2024 & rated 97 points: Slo-ox 2-3 hours drank over 2 days. Deep and brooding from the get go and improved over time. Black currant, blackberry, chocolate, leather, iron notes. Pleasant acidity balanced nicely with dry tannins. Holding up nicely, but not as vibrant or complex as I experienced a decade ago. Enjoyed with bone-in ribeye tomahawk steak. (686 views)
 Tasted by Shugs_Claret on 1/26/2024 & rated 99 points: Phenomenal bottle. Cork was a bit dried out but bottled stuffed full of goodness. Black and blue fruit. Oak fully integrated. Velvety tannins. Profound throughout. Popped and poured. (892 views)
 Tasted by IndyTom on 12/25/2023 & rated 96 points: No doubt that is an outstanding wine. Refined, seamless, delicious. But is it worth $427 at auction? Reminds me that I would rather have 10 bottles of a great $40 wine than one bottle of $400 wine. (1070 views)
 Tasted by philweird on 12/23/2023 & rated 95 points: Fantastic. Opened a magnum for a steak and lobster dinner and decanted for two hours. Don’t think it evolved much as the night progressed but Seems to have a lot of life left (951 views)
 Tasted by jsebiri on 12/4/2023: Big boy wine @ 20+ years. Plenty of fruit , rich nose, Good wine, very dark purple, I think this wine was better 10 years ago. Last 2 glasses were vac'd up and 5 nights later the wine was noticeably more interesting. (1306 views)
 Tasted by Montesquieu on 11/1/2023 & rated 95 points: Outstanding but not transcendent. Smooth, mature, rich and but not tertiary fruit. Some subtle soil and tar notes added complexity. I doubt this improves from here. (1748 views)
 Tasted by Frank Schneider on 10/23/2023 & rated 98 points: No three digits today. But sure fantastic (1320 views)
 Tasted by dbkitc on 8/13/2023 & rated 94 points: Blackberry, nutmeg, creamy, forceful. Power nose. Sweet, mature fruit. A bit much for me - missing a balancing element. It a very fine wine for sure, just not my style. I will be drinking my other two bottles soon as I think more time may push it further into a sweet only mode. (94) (1731 views)
 Tasted by melvinyeowq on 7/27/2023 & rated 88 points: Fantastic new-worlds: A big boy kind of wine with powerful, extracted black fruit. Better than the 1999 that I tried previously but this felt unbalanced still, especially next to the Opus which was a better wine in my opinion. Not my kind of wine. (1929 views)
 Tasted by levinml on 12/11/2022 & rated 97 points: Best cab I’ve had in a while. Drank with Ash B at dinner. Aired in wine glasses for an hour during cocktails. Great everything. Round, full bodied, long finish, great flavors and tannins in balance. Don’t get that very much any more. (2843 views)
 Tasted by Bælledyret on 11/26/2022 & rated 97 points: What a bomb! Dark fruited, velvety, cedar box and just pure comfort. Needed 1 hour decanting to open up. (2301 views)
 Tasted by AlexHop on 10/5/2022 & rated 99 points: Still intense dark fruit. Bold and rich crushed herbs and minerals plenty of age left in it. Long finish that keeps going with classic aged cab characteristics.

Almost perfect. (2841 views)
 Tasted by Shugs_Claret on 9/22/2022 & rated 98 points: This is a baby. Mixed berry fruit on the nose with tobacco leaf and leather starting to show a bit more. Still some oak yet to integrate.

Cassis and dark fruit dominate the palate. Does not seem overdone given the surplus of chewy tannins that have yet to soften. Oak still persists a bit.

Consider checking on this in 20 years...seriously. (2367 views)
 Tasted by jjct on 5/13/2022: Powerful. Soaring rich fruit framed by dusty minerality. Not my usual fare, but I am enjoying this very much with a nice Aussie wagyu. Seems fully resolved and ready to go. (3234 views)
 Tasted by CHarder on 4/15/2022 & rated 99 points: Still crazy good. Full, smooth, round snd just in a perfect spot. Think it will hold for at least 5yrs - probably not improve though (2490 views)
 Tasted by ahgoodman on 2/21/2022 & rated 98 points: Still lots of life left (1999 views)
 Tasted by Kevnzworld on 12/22/2021 & rated 96 points: 1 hour decant prior to Linda’s Xmas party.
Black cherry, vanilla oak and dusty ash on the finish . Somewhat too concentrated for my palate that evening after drinking Bordeaux, but overall nice. (3002 views)
 Tasted by KenK on 12/19/2021 & rated 98 points: A true “wow” wine and the best Shafer HSS poured on an evening with about a dozen vintages. A hedonistic dream. Absolutely killer ripe strawberry cherry fruit with tremendous purity and depth. Long rich and creamy with sweet tannins and balancing acid keeping it fresh. Simply delicious with a sense of real breed. Still comes across young and vibrant. yum yum juice. Not for the faint of heart or those with palates favoring a more dry earthy leaner styled wine. However, if you like fruit in your wine, wow!

Champagne Gala (2864 views)
 Tasted by mxpbuy on 12/18/2021 & rated 97 points: Decanted 1+ hours. This was in a perfect spot. Gobs of nearly jammy black and blue fruits. Touches of mocha. Nice vanilla Oak with some dusty tannins and eucalyptus and lavender. Velvety smooth. (2119 views)
 Tasted by Burgundy Al on 12/17/2021: Holiday Champagne Gala (Park Ridge Country Club): A big step up vs the 2004 and 2001 Sunspot, but still more fleshy and flashy than what I would prefer. Still, lots here with very good concentration and nearly balanced. Wine of the Night for some. (2986 views)
 Tasted by CHarder on 8/14/2021 & rated 100 points: This is basically perfect. Fruit remains, fresh but smooth. Full but light on its feet. (3132 views)
 Tasted by BoulderWine on 7/18/2021 & rated 96 points: At Todd’s in Sonoma (pre-move). PnP. Incredibly rich dark fruit. A really intense, delicious wine. Still has a lot left but so glad that Todd opened it for us. (14.9% alc) (2285 views)
 Tasted by Cailles on 6/23/2021 & rated 96 points: Small vertical of Hillside Select 1994/2002/2016. All wines showed great with unbelievably complex aroma profiles, laser-sharp precision, and an impeccable structure. They have the Napa fruit and ripeness but all is well dosed and with so much hillside minerality to balance it. The 1994 (97pts) was almost Bordeaux-esque and almost fully mature (the opposite of a very young bottle 2 years ago). The 2002 (96pts) is slowly getting there, shows incredibly complex but still has to lose some baby fat. The 2016 (97+pts) is of course very young but the most singular 2016 Napa I‘ve had to date (out of probably 30) and is a great promise for the future.

TN: Very expressive nose with lots of cassis and blackberries, strong minty notes, some baby fat, baking spices and a touch minerality. The palate shows much more layered and ever changing with lots of ripe but not too ripe dark fruit and blue fruit, graphite and some ashy minerality and smoke, herbs, with time red fruit, violets, hints of chocolate and baking spices as well as some first shy tertiary aromas with fresh tobacco. The wine has a massive but fine tannin structure which is in need of further ageing and a good freshness but not with the same tension great Bordeauxs have (and I guess the 2016 will have at the same point in its life). Easily 96+ points.

Decanting: Quickly double-decanted 7 hours before consumption, good from the go.

Glass: Conterno Sensory (3013 views)
 Tasted by acheng on 5/26/2021 & rated 93 points: Can’t believe the price hike on this wine now. Deep garnet. Wonderful oak spice cinnamon and cardamom with sweet dark fruit and cassis. No need to hold longer. (2411 views)
 Tasted by sirpat00 on 4/24/2021 & rated 98 points: Tasted blind as part of a mini-vertical (1994, 2002, 2016). All 3 bottles were only double-decanted as no longer decant was needed. This being blind, it was hard to find the common denominator that would have given away a vertical with all three wines showing very distinct features. In terms of ranking #1 was 2002 followed by 2016 and 1994.

Tasting note
A ton of liquorice, cranberry, black currant, blueberry, fine cedar wood and milk chocolate. Very concentrated and super intense. Great tension with an electric and long finish. Acidity and tannin woven into a luxurious robe. Baking spices, more leather and smoke. Sumptuous and incredibly refined, great detail. A polished yet cool fruit. This is mind-blowingly amazing. Fun fact: At 1.6kg the bottle is almost twice as heavy as a regular bottle and was also heavier than the other two. (3046 views)
 Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine...

Professional 'Channels'
By Jeb Dunnuck
JebDunnuck.com, Napa Valley’s 2020s and 2021s (2/16/2023)
(Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select) Login and sign up and see review text.
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 Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (9/17/2009)
(Shafer, Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text.
By Stephen Tanzer
Vinous, January/February 2007, IWC Issue #130
(Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select Stags Leap District) Subscribe to see review text.
By Richard Jennings
RJonWine.com (9/17/2011)
(Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select) Opaque red violet color; rich, ripe berry, almost porty, boysenberry nose; rich, youthful, black fruit, ripe berry, boysenberry, blackberry puree palate with sweet, firm tannins; approachable now but could use 3 years; long finish 93+ points  93 points
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JebDunnuck.com and Decanter and Vinous and JancisRobinson.com and RJonWine.com. (manage subscription channels)

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.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet 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 Sauvignon

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)

Stags Leap District

Stags Leap District

 
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