Lots of spice and peach aromas as well as tropical hints. Still showing plenty of new oak, but closer to fully integrated than a year or two ago. Dense, lush and powerful from start-to-finish with great length and persistence. Thanks, Rob!

Lean and very pristine start with Meyer lemon, lemon peel and ripe apple aromas along with subtle floral hints. Ripe but also elegant, mostly showing orchard fruit flavors throughout to long, lacy finish.

Perfumed and floral start with stone and tropical fruit. Lush and very ripe, very 2009. Accessible and forward, this is already drinking well today. Moderate weight and finesse, so I'd consider this best in the next 5 years.

Corked.

Others liked this more but I thought it over the hill, lacking energy and uninspiring, despite good density and mature fruit quality.

Mostly lush black fruit aromas and flavors, with subtle spice. Everything is balanced and harmonious, but this comes across as slightly ripe and with just moderate weight and length. Perhaps this just needs more time to pick up more nuance. Ripeness is very 2006 in character.

From magnum. Very good black fruit with hints of emerging cooked mushroom and some tobacco notes. Very firm, borderline backward. Certainly needs more time, at least in this format. Many of tonight's group agreed with me, but others enjoyed this wine far more.

Brief note. Elegant black fruit with some intriguing cigarbox elements. Slightly subtle, very balanced, moderate length and power.

Brief note. Very fat and lush, still mostly fresh, but not well centered.

Brief note. Black currant aromas, same flavors with some cherry, overall very good balance. Well textured, good length and finesse.

Brief note. Leaner styled tonight. Elegant and easy to enjoy, but also simpler than most other HSS vintages tonight. Best to drink up.

This started as one of my favorite wines of the evening, with a good combination of dense, black fruit with earthy elements. This wine kept evolving over the course of the evening, alas, not in a good way, with less and less fruit forthcoming, while the earthiness started coming across as somewhat corky. Very glad this was popped and poured.

Brief note. Tasted alongside its 96 counterpart, both fun, but in completely different ways. This is elegantly styled and well structured with overall good balance. This should age gracefully.

Brief note. Tasted alongside the 95 HSS in an extensive HSS dinner lineup. This was lush, ripe and forward, a zaftig-styled wine. Lots of pleasure, modest complexity.

Brief note. Fat black fruit starting to lose its freshness, so the heat is starting to protrude on finish. Still drinking nicely but its best days are in the past.

Brief note. Ripe, but good balance. Drinking well now, with good textures, good charm.

Brief note. Controversial wine tonight, coming across as over ripe and hot tonight, not nearly as well balanced as I recall from last time tried, perhaps a year ago.

Brief note. Probably my favorite Shafer of the evening amongst a dozen 1978-2005. Lots of ripe fruit, but with great energy and freshness to maintain impressive balance. At a very good place now.

Brief note. Not a personal favorite tonight. Ultra ripe, almost to the point of seeming stewy and unpleasant. Off bottle? But there were two bottles, from different cellars.

Popped and poured. Very enticing, lush stone fruit aromatic start with plenty of spice. Similar flavors to start, with good acidity and minerality, but this started losing energy fairly quickly and was far less interesting after 30-45 minutes vs when first opened.

First time I can recall trying this wine, overall very impressive at every level. I never would have thought this from 97 if tasted blind...probably 2000? Lots of ripe red cherry and strawberry aromas with charming baking spice support and very good minerality. Similar flavor profiles, all very balanced and well textured. Very good now, but this is a rare 1997 that I think has upside from here.

Popped and poured, this wine kept changing over the course of two hours open. At first rather musty and stuffy, then 15-20 minutes of good aeration brought out bright red cherry and savory Asian five spice. After an hour this shut down and only showed lean fruit and firm structure. But then afrer another 30 minutes, red fruit (slightly more mature) re-emerged with robust Vosne spice. Tough to say exactly what to expect from this wine going forward, but if near-term...I'd give it more advance air time.