Community Tasting Note

WineConfiguration Likes this wine:

Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - Well well, its been almost 10 years since I last visited these lovely ladies. Here goes..

Nose: There is a lovely aroma of coffee beans and tobacco and im not saying it as a typical swirl your nose on the glass scene, literally the scents flows in the air after I opened the wine and decanted it by the decanter

Color: A dark maroon-clay brick swirl

Taste: I was really happy on its first sip from the top neck of the bottle, you have tons of aged plums and dark dried fruits soaked in coffee finishings. Quite a bit of sharp tannins and some small notes of alcohol notes holding.

Decanted 1.5 hrs later, the Shafer opened up nicely, the tannins and alcohol notes have lightened and it loosen up the acidity, the berries and fruit notes favor surface even more on the glass and you could taste the aged grapes on each sip with small hint of sugary finishings. There is so much toffee and caramel notes flowing in as it swirls.

Remarkably this merlot is another great example and demonstration on how past napa wine makers without mega purple could out perform in creation to a stunning bottle of Merlot that could easily paired against with a super 2nd or 3rd label of a saint emilion.

I have 6 more bottles, would be gone in no time. However judging from the notation on its tannins, if ypu are able to find some in mint conditions, this Shafer can easily hold off for another 10 years before climbing its peak. The bottles I have were all in perfect cellar conditions. Lovely wine and Shafer did an amazing job even for something thats not a “1.5” or “relentless” level.

Cheers
The Winenald Ronald
Of Boston, Manhattan, Hong Kong and Shanghai

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