March 7, 2024 - WCC 2004 California Cab Blind Tasting (Fort Orange Club, Albany, NY): Spectacular aromatics here - an array of dark chocolate, violets, black fruit, and more low toned smoky and earthy savouriness. A lovely wine to just sit and smell, though the palate doesn't quite live up - there's plenty of ripe, luscious fruit here, but also a tinge of heat on the finish.
March 7, 2024 - WCC 2004 California Cab Blind Tasting (Fort Orange Club, Albany, NY): [Double-decanted around 2pm.] The muted nose of black currants slowly opens up to brighter fruit and flowers. Young, but so rich and complex. Very long finish. Easily the WOTN for me and the group.
December 25, 2023 - 2 hrs slow ox, not decanted. Right out of the bottle there was a bit of raisin/prune out of both standard and Somm stems, however, this could be the result of several moves (have had issues with several other pre-move HSS bottles) but has largely blown off.
Still ample dark fruit and a lovely, balanced satiny coating across the entire palate. For me this is in a great place and unlikely to improve. Pleased that this is my final, but again, there may have been some transit damage that has shortened the life of this in my cellar.
August 30, 2023 - Drank a bottle in 2013 with friends and rated it 98 then: "Wow! What a wine! From a vintage that some have "taken to task," this excellent cabernet has multi-layered characteristics, wonderful integration, smooth tannins, rich taste and long finish. Don't let anyone make you think this wine is anything short of amazing! Drink now through 2024."
Drinking a bottle in 2023 (10 years later) and I would say the same as then. I don't believe cellaring from here will significantly enhance - enjoy!
July 19, 2023 - Corked. Bummer
July 3, 2023 - Excellent exemplar, very powerful, but seems a bit out of balance - hot where it should be deep. Don’t see this as 100 pointer but a fine rich Napa cab.
March 8, 2023 - Amazing! Decanted at Piero’s in Vegas. Huge perfumy nose, great fruit, mineral, smooth classy and balanced. Milk chocolate. Long finish.
November 2, 2022 - I had this with my wine group at a NYC Steakhouse. Usually I am disappointed in the HS at restaurants. Probably because they never get a decent chance to breathe and develop in a restaurant setting. So for this bottle, I opened it at home, and decanted half the bottle for an hour, before pouring it back into the bottle and recorking it. What a difference. While at first it seemed oxidized, once it was poured out, that was gone and what was left was a fruity nose (think red plum jam), a full bodied mouth feel and a very long finish. Not a lot of tannin left, so no idea how it will age going forward. But right now, it was treat! The other reds of the evening were: 2001 Araujo Eisele Vineyard , 2009 Scarecrow, and the 2009 Harlan. They were all different and after a sip of each, I think I could have ID'd them blind. And while the Shafer was my favorite, if I had to rate them, I would give them all the same numerical score.
October 9, 2022 - Out of mag, 24 hr splash decant back in bottle re-corked over night. Pruny, grapey, cigar box, drying tannins, med-weight, one-dimensional, short. Looking for nuance and tertiary notes at this stage, nothing. That drying tannin scares me for those that want more age.
August 13, 2022 - This embodies the Stags Leap stereotype of iron fist in velvet glove. Tannins muted, almost sweet. It’s the elder of a Napa berry bomb, aged well, but ultimately it stops after a few notes, doesn’t have more to say beyond first impressions. Very good but definitely not great.