3/8/2015 - floridawinedrkr Likes this wine:

We drink a lot of Shafer HSS and the 2008's are not ready to be consumed and have not showed their best stuff yet. Over the last 2 days we have drank this 2008 as well as 2005, 2006, and (2) 1991's. The 2008 as it is still an excellent bottle was certainly disjointed as far as Shafer HSS are concerned. It was still enjoyable but it was not what the others were. The finish was rough, it was rough through the mid palate. It wasn't what an HSS usually is and we have drank everything from 1996-2009 as well as the 1991's. We have a very large collection of Shafers. We decanted this bottle for 4 hours and I do not believe it would have improved much with a longer decant. It needs a few more years in the bottle to come around but I do not believe this will ever be a superstar for Shafer. Not even close to the 2001,2002,& 2004's.