Fantastic! Dark concentrated ripe red and black fruit with just a bit of complexing earthiness. Beautifully balanced. A great example of the ripeness and concentration offered by Stags Leap District with the restraint of a talented winemaker. Significantly benefitted from an hour in the decanter.
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One hour decant. Very deep dark magenta color. Plum, rum cake, thyme, and browned butter. Super smooth, dry palate. Full, round tannins on the longish finish.
Third wine of the night at our good friends’ country club. Paired with terrific bone-in ribeye. My ability to take meticulous notes was fading at this point.
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TOP SHELF WINE WEEKEND: Tannic and drying, the chest on this thing is bumping and thumping with push, thrust, grip and clutch, but the fruit has a difficult time elbowing past the bro-code bullishness of the frame. Black fruited, mostly of the unripe and crunchy kind, with black rock adding to the impression of angularity and coarseness. Finishes dry and… dry…
That was day one. There was a hair of this left over for day two, which was a night-and-day experience. The fruit had finally managed to shove past the skeletal armor and offer exciting mineral-laced blackberry, blueberry skin, and black raspberry flavors. The energy here is exciting. Still, like running your palate along a cobblestone road at a farmer’s market, the 2016 HSS is gonna need another decade at least to figure out how to fan out the goods. This is a long-hauler for sure.
Wild and Crazy Memorial Weekend - Sunday (Chris' Castle aka Melissa's Manor): Another baby, but fun to taste! Yes, this has all the stuffing to be great, and I would expect nothing less. More fruit forward and pretty darn tannic (probably the most tannic wine of the night, or at least the most noticeable tannins) This wine is very good from an academic standpoint, and pretty darn good from a tasting standpoint, but only showing vague glimpses of what is to come (based on other tastings of older Hillsides). I know there was a change in ownership, but I still expect similar performance to past vintages, and seeing how 16 was a pretty stellar vintage for Napa, I fully expect this to take its place amongst the best Shafer HSS!
2016 Shafer HSS - Mostly red fruit with hints of darker fruit looming in the background. Already showing hints of cocoa, earth and lots of toasted oak. This wine is good now, and fairly complex, but it should be a blockbuster in coming years. More closed down (IMO) than most 2016s. 94 now, but should flirt with perfection in the future.
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Memorial Madness at Case de Chris y Melissa - Day 2 of 2: I actually liked this wine today. For this wine, maybe a tad young actually and I might have liked this a bit more with a few more years on it. Nevertheless, this wine is extremely well made and built to last. I have a bit of nostalgia when I hear Hillside Select. It was one of the few wines I looked up to in the sense that the early 2000s of HSS along with Araujo Eisele, Insignia and Les Pavots were the sort of benchmark wines for me at the time. I’m glad they are still producing good wine despite having been sold to a larger entity.
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Palate seems to match the nose completely but with black fruits instead.
The only thing that threw this off track a little was this punch of heat on the finish. I tried my best to give this some time but it could not just shake off the heat. Still very tasty though.
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IMO drinking this now equates to throwing a lot of money away. Although I rate it 95 on potential, it doesn't drink that well today. Plenty of wine for 1/5 the price drinks as well as this does now. Please pay your bottles the respect of age they deserve. I presume this will be great one day, but I'm not an expert in how SHS ages. Comments reflect experience across two bottles on the same night, neither with long decants.
Nose The wine exhibits pronounced developing aromas of black plum, black currant, black cherry, dried savory herbs, vanilla, toast, anise, licorice, coconut, earth, graphite, and tobacco leaf.
Palate The wine is dry with a full body, high acid, medium + tannins, medium alcohol, and exhibits pronounced developing flavors of black cherry, black currant, blackberry jam, licorice, vanilla, green bell pepper with a long finish.,
Conclusion The quality of this wine is exceptional. Long life ahead of it, but, though still tight, enjoyable now. Live and wine are good!
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Intensely extracted wine. Dense! Purple so deep I don’t have an adjective. Supremely ripe fruit - Plum preserves, and black fruits. Pencil lead and licorice. Fine grained, satisfyingly opulent tannins.
Dark plum purple in the glass. Brooding black fruit nose with lots of rich dense cola flavours. Huge wine and very typical of this estate. On the palate is more dark fruit, ripe plums and blackberry. Earthy liquorice too. Decades away from equilibrium with lots of winding growth and maturity ahead.
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Holiday Champagne Gala (Park Ridge Country Club): Small glass, brief note. Black plum, currant with cassis and subtle notes that manage to emerge because of the wine's fundamental balance. I prefer this more moderated version of Hillside Select vs the versions of the early 00s. Very good.
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Almost opaque in color, the wine is massive, powerful, dense and intense. The layers of incredibly ripe, black and fruits coat every facet of your palate with non-stop layers of intensity. Hedonistic, showy and attention-seeking, this should age and evolve for 2-3 decades with ease.
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: Wow, what a singular expression of Cabernet. Highly intense and expressive on the nose and palate with lots of dark cherries and sour cherries. In addition baking spices and lots lots of minty notes. Of course the intense fruit is overshadowing most other nuances there are underneath but you can sense that this wine has a lot in store. The structure is prefect with a strong tannin structure built with ultra fine tannins, a superbly high and perfectly round acidity, lots of tension and a super airy and slightly creamy structure. I can really see this wine to reach perfection once mature. 97++ points today.
Decanting: Quickly double-decanted 7 hours before consumption, good from the go.
Glass: Conterno Sensory
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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 Lots of fresh herbs, marzipan, almonds, cherry compote, beef tartar and even a bit of butter milk or white chocolate, also caramel, cotton candy and just a tad of mocha - an very unique profile that was very hard to place, both vintage and region wise (I did end up guessing elevated Napa vineyard 2016 so all good). Moving on. Flavours were just bursting out of the glass, presenting a fruit-forward and well balanced palate even if still a bit wild. Incredibly pure and precise. Wouldn't be surprised if the 2016 surpassed the 2002 one day…
This wine is an absolute beast. I expected it to be big, but wow. 100 point nose with incredible purity and intensity of fruit. I kept nosing it before tasting it because it was so alluring. On the palate it shows its size and complexity, and screams, give me a few days to unfurl. I followed one glass over about 4 hours and it very slowly got better. Will follow this bottle over 3 days to see how it evolves, but tuck these away as deep into your cellar as you can. My curiosity got the best of me.
Day 2 100 point nose without a doubt. Wine is still backward and tannic, fine tannins, but grippy. Dark fruit on the palate with classic Napa creme de cassis. Better when it warned up to 68 degrees, but not at all ready, still.
Day 3 Nose is still phenomenal. Same fruit profile on the nose and palate (lots of creme de cassis) and less backward. Still some tannic grip to the finish, but the wine was somewhat round for the first time and finding an enjoyable level of balance and integration. Still not ready!
Day 4 Last day. Nose is still great, but much rounder and a bit mellowed. Evolving to include some red fruit in both the nose and palate, and some secondary aromas peaking through. Wine is much more integrated and the tannic grip is much more pleasing and subdued. Day 4 was by far the most enjoyable and not sure I'd want to go past that for my taste.
Overall, hold these. I rarely say that, but this is just a beast. The wine screams quality, but I won't touch the rest of my bottles for 7-10+ years due to how backward it is and the sheer amount of tannin. I'll continue to suck down my TRB, Mike Smith, etc. approachable Napa cabs in the meantime :)
Very deeply colored with a rich, almost thick texture, the 2016 Shafer HS is still very young, and somewhat muted right now. The nose centers on concentrated cassis aromas, with a subtle, sexy overlay of cocoa, lavender and mint. The wine is powerful and dense in style, but very balanced on the palate, showing substantial acidity that holds the sweetness of the fruit in check and soft, long tannins.
I would give this at least six years, maybe even ten. It should be sensational at maturity. Right now, it is hard to enjoy and needs an incredible amount of time to breath, like a day or even two. Don’t even consider popping and pouring!
Birthday wine night with my daughter and her boyfriend. Big wine taste-off between 2016 Palmer, 2013 Matriarch and the 2016 Shafer. The Palmer by far was the smoothest, very high end and pure. Drank way too early, but having never tried a Palmer I decided to open a bottle early. The Matriarch was the surprise of the night as it exceeded expectations. In part I suspect this was because of the cellar time. This brings me to the Shafer. The Shafer started out slow but improved over several hours. However, the other wines improved as well. Overall the WOTN was the Matriarch, followed by the Palmer, then the HSS. The big takeaway was that when comparing high end wines like these it is unfair to open a 2013 and compare it to two other much younger wines. All three were exceptional. HSS 94 for now, but easily could improve by 2-3 points.
Deep purple color. Dark, deep and inviting on the nose, with suave blackberries, tart plums, black currants, laced with graphite, cocoa, anise, tobacco, and rocky, earthy tones. On the palate, this is full but fresh, with gorgeous balance between structured tannins and tangy acidity, which frames the wine so well. Juicy dark currants, plums and blackberries, with complex notes of graphite, stony earth, cocoa powder, espresso. These underlying notes of tobacco, violet petals need time to come out. This is a beautiful Hillside Select, such elegance and balance, but also staying power. I would love to see this in 10 years. Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak.
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The best HSS I have had since the 2012. I've been mildly disappointed with some recent vintages, but this one is the real deal. Nose of blackberry liqueur, mint, sweet oak and violets. Full bodied with amazingly fine grained powerful and integrated tannins, this wine is built like a brick house. Shows great concentration from start to finish, while constantly evolving and changing. Very complex. Big black and blue fruit complemented by loads of earthy notions. Super fresh, balanced and opulent at the same time, this pulls off the power without the heaviness. Long finish.
2/17/2024 - BottleScholar Likes this wine: 95 Points
Fantastic! Dark concentrated ripe red and black fruit with just a bit of complexing earthiness. Beautifully balanced. A great example of the ripeness and concentration offered by Stags Leap District with the restraint of a talented winemaker. Significantly benefitted from an hour in the decanter.
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9/14/2023 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 97 Points
One hour decant. Very deep dark magenta color. Plum, rum cake, thyme, and browned butter. Super smooth, dry palate. Full, round tannins on the longish finish.
Third wine of the night at our good friends’ country club. Paired with terrific bone-in ribeye. My ability to take meticulous notes was fading at this point.
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6/6/2023 - csimm wrote: 96 Points
TOP SHELF WINE WEEKEND: Tannic and drying, the chest on this thing is bumping and thumping with push, thrust, grip and clutch, but the fruit has a difficult time elbowing past the bro-code bullishness of the frame. Black fruited, mostly of the unripe and crunchy kind, with black rock adding to the impression of angularity and coarseness. Finishes dry and… dry…
That was day one. There was a hair of this left over for day two, which was a night-and-day experience. The fruit had finally managed to shove past the skeletal armor and offer exciting mineral-laced blackberry, blueberry skin, and black raspberry flavors. The energy here is exciting. Still, like running your palate along a cobblestone road at a farmer’s market, the 2016 HSS is gonna need another decade at least to figure out how to fan out the goods. This is a long-hauler for sure.
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5/28/2023 - I'd Rather Be Drinking Wine Likes this wine: 94 Points
Wild and Crazy Memorial Weekend - Sunday (Chris' Castle aka Melissa's Manor): Another baby, but fun to taste! Yes, this has all the stuffing to be great, and I would expect nothing less. More fruit forward and pretty darn tannic (probably the most tannic wine of the night, or at least the most noticeable tannins) This wine is very good from an academic standpoint, and pretty darn good from a tasting standpoint, but only showing vague glimpses of what is to come (based on other tastings of older Hillsides). I know there was a change in ownership, but I still expect similar performance to past vintages, and seeing how 16 was a pretty stellar vintage for Napa, I fully expect this to take its place amongst the best Shafer HSS!
2016 Shafer HSS - Mostly red fruit with hints of darker fruit looming in the background. Already showing hints of cocoa, earth and lots of toasted oak. This wine is good now, and fairly complex, but it should be a blockbuster in coming years. More closed down (IMO) than most 2016s. 94 now, but should flirt with perfection in the future.
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5/28/2023 - bsumoba Likes this wine: 96 Points
Memorial Madness at Case de Chris y Melissa - Day 2 of 2: I actually liked this wine today. For this wine, maybe a tad young actually and I might have liked this a bit more with a few more years on it. Nevertheless, this wine is extremely well made and built to last. I have a bit of nostalgia when I hear Hillside Select. It was one of the few wines I looked up to in the sense that the early 2000s of HSS along with Araujo Eisele, Insignia and Les Pavots were the sort of benchmark wines for me at the time. I’m glad they are still producing good wine despite having been sold to a larger entity.
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5/28/2023 - WineBurrowingWombat Likes this wine: 96 Points
Memorial Day Weekend, Day 2: The Great Gatsby: Aromas of rich red fruits and rich earth in a dark, brooding sense.
Palate seems to match the nose completely but with black fruits instead.
The only thing that threw this off track a little was this punch of heat on the finish. I tried my best to give this some time but it could not just shake off the heat. Still very tasty though.
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2/14/2023 - Montesquieu wrote: 95 Points
IMO drinking this now equates to throwing a lot of money away. Although I rate it 95 on potential, it doesn't drink that well today. Plenty of wine for 1/5 the price drinks as well as this does now. Please pay your bottles the respect of age they deserve. I presume this will be great one day, but I'm not an expert in how SHS ages. Comments reflect experience across two bottles on the same night, neither with long decants.
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11/5/2022 - Libbidog Likes this wine: 97 Points
Appearance
The wine is a clear deep roby
Nose
The wine exhibits pronounced developing aromas of black plum, black currant, black cherry, dried savory herbs, vanilla, toast, anise, licorice, coconut, earth, graphite, and tobacco leaf.
Palate
The wine is dry with a full body, high acid, medium + tannins, medium alcohol, and exhibits pronounced developing flavors of black cherry, black currant, blackberry jam, licorice, vanilla, green bell pepper with a long finish.,
Conclusion
The quality of this wine is exceptional. Long life ahead of it, but, though still tight, enjoyable now. Live and wine are good!
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10/18/2022 - havana4 🍾🍇 Likes this wine: 95 Points
Love this Big structured Cab. The fruit intensity and complexity are gorgeous. medium tannic but very well integrated.
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8/5/2022 - JP75Wine Likes this wine: 95 Points
Intensely extracted wine. Dense! Purple so deep I don’t have an adjective. Supremely ripe fruit - Plum preserves, and black fruits. Pencil lead and licorice. Fine grained, satisfyingly opulent tannins.
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7/20/2022 - Bosbevok Likes this wine: 98 Points
Dark plum purple in the glass. Brooding black fruit nose with lots of rich dense cola flavours. Huge wine and very typical of this estate. On the palate is more dark fruit, ripe plums and blackberry. Earthy liquorice too. Decades away from equilibrium with lots of winding growth and maturity ahead.
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12/17/2021 - Burgundy Al wrote: 93 Points
Holiday Champagne Gala (Park Ridge Country Club): Small glass, brief note. Black plum, currant with cassis and subtle notes that manage to emerge because of the wine's fundamental balance. I prefer this more moderated version of Hillside Select vs the versions of the early 00s. Very good.
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10/30/2021 - Dougtulsa Likes this wine: 98 Points
amazing
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8/8/2021 - Plabella Likes this wine: 99 Points
Fabulous wine great fruit great balance integrated tannins
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7/8/2021 - Jeff Leve wrote: 98 Points
Almost opaque in color, the wine is massive, powerful, dense and intense. The layers of incredibly ripe, black and fruits coat every facet of your palate with non-stop layers of intensity. Hedonistic, showy and attention-seeking, this should age and evolve for 2-3 decades with ease.
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6/23/2021 - Cailles wrote: 97 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: Wow, what a singular expression of Cabernet. Highly intense and expressive on the nose and palate with lots of dark cherries and sour cherries. In addition baking spices and lots lots of minty notes. Of course the intense fruit is overshadowing most other nuances there are underneath but you can sense that this wine has a lot in store. The structure is prefect with a strong tannin structure built with ultra fine tannins, a superbly high and perfectly round acidity, lots of tension and a super airy and slightly creamy structure. I can really see this wine to reach perfection once mature. 97++ points today.
Decanting: Quickly double-decanted 7 hours before consumption, good from the go.
Glass: Conterno Sensory
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4/24/2021 - sirpat00 wrote: 97 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
Lots of fresh herbs, marzipan, almonds, cherry compote, beef tartar and even a bit of butter milk or white chocolate, also caramel, cotton candy and just a tad of mocha - an very unique profile that was very hard to place, both vintage and region wise (I did end up guessing elevated Napa vineyard 2016 so all good). Moving on. Flavours were just bursting out of the glass, presenting a fruit-forward and well balanced palate even if still a bit wild. Incredibly pure and precise. Wouldn't be surprised if the 2016 surpassed the 2002 one day…
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2/25/2021 - CorkedInSeattle Likes this wine:
This wine is an absolute beast. I expected it to be big, but wow. 100 point nose with incredible purity and intensity of fruit. I kept nosing it before tasting it because it was so alluring. On the palate it shows its size and complexity, and screams, give me a few days to unfurl. I followed one glass over about 4 hours and it very slowly got better. Will follow this bottle over 3 days to see how it evolves, but tuck these away as deep into your cellar as you can. My curiosity got the best of me.
Day 2
100 point nose without a doubt. Wine is still backward and tannic, fine tannins, but grippy. Dark fruit on the palate with classic Napa creme de cassis. Better when it warned up to 68 degrees, but not at all ready, still.
Day 3
Nose is still phenomenal. Same fruit profile on the nose and palate (lots of creme de cassis) and less backward. Still some tannic grip to the finish, but the wine was somewhat round for the first time and finding an enjoyable level of balance and integration. Still not ready!
Day 4
Last day. Nose is still great, but much rounder and a bit mellowed. Evolving to include some red fruit in both the nose and palate, and some secondary aromas peaking through. Wine is much more integrated and the tannic grip is much more pleasing and subdued. Day 4 was by far the most enjoyable and not sure I'd want to go past that for my taste.
Overall, hold these. I rarely say that, but this is just a beast. The wine screams quality, but I won't touch the rest of my bottles for 7-10+ years due to how backward it is and the sheer amount of tannin. I'll continue to suck down my TRB, Mike Smith, etc. approachable Napa cabs in the meantime :)
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1/2/2021 - cubswinws wrote: 95 Points
Big and pure. Improved over the course of 3-4 hours. Too young for sure but incredible upside. Try again in 8-10 years
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11/29/2020 - Sonoma-W Likes this wine: 94 Points
Excellent.
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11/23/2020 - KPB wrote: 96 Points
Very deeply colored with a rich, almost thick texture, the 2016 Shafer HS is still very young, and somewhat muted right now. The nose centers on concentrated cassis aromas, with a subtle, sexy overlay of cocoa, lavender and mint. The wine is powerful and dense in style, but very balanced on the palate, showing substantial acidity that holds the sweetness of the fruit in check and soft, long tannins.
I would give this at least six years, maybe even ten. It should be sensational at maturity. Right now, it is hard to enjoy and needs an incredible amount of time to breath, like a day or even two. Don’t even consider popping and pouring!
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10/24/2020 - TXRDW wrote: 94 Points
Birthday wine night with my daughter and her boyfriend. Big wine taste-off between 2016 Palmer, 2013 Matriarch and the 2016 Shafer. The Palmer by far was the smoothest, very high end and pure. Drank way too early, but having never tried a Palmer I decided to open a bottle early. The Matriarch was the surprise of the night as it exceeded expectations. In part I suspect this was because of the cellar time. This brings me to the Shafer. The Shafer started out slow but improved over several hours. However, the other wines improved as well. Overall the WOTN was the Matriarch, followed by the Palmer, then the HSS. The big takeaway was that when comparing high end wines like these it is unfair to open a 2013 and compare it to two other much younger wines. All three were exceptional. HSS 94 for now, but easily could improve by 2-3 points.
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10/3/2020 - dbkitc wrote: 95 Points
Powerful and pure. Has the balance to drink now but will only get better. A treat. (95)
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9/30/2020 - isaacjamesbaker wrote: 96 Points
Deep purple color. Dark, deep and inviting on the nose, with suave blackberries, tart plums, black currants, laced with graphite, cocoa, anise, tobacco, and rocky, earthy tones. On the palate, this is full but fresh, with gorgeous balance between structured tannins and tangy acidity, which frames the wine so well. Juicy dark currants, plums and blackberries, with complex notes of graphite, stony earth, cocoa powder, espresso. These underlying notes of tobacco, violet petals need time to come out. This is a beautiful Hillside Select, such elegance and balance, but also staying power. I would love to see this in 10 years. Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak.
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9/19/2020 - Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 97 Points
The best HSS I have had since the 2012. I've been mildly disappointed with some recent vintages, but this one is the real deal. Nose of blackberry liqueur, mint, sweet oak and violets. Full bodied with amazingly fine grained powerful and integrated tannins, this wine is built like a brick house. Shows great concentration from start to finish, while constantly evolving and changing. Very complex. Big black and blue fruit complemented by loads of earthy notions. Super fresh, balanced and opulent at the same time, this pulls off the power without the heaviness. Long finish.
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