Shafer Vineyards: One of Napa’s most prominent and respected wineries, Shafer consistently produces quality wine. Lead by the father and son team of John and Doug Shafer as well as their long-term winemaker and vineyard manager, Elias Fernandez, the property produces year after year of great wine, including is flagship wine, the Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet.
  

Shafer Vineyards (Consistent Greatness):

2004 Shafer Hillside Select - RP 97 - One of the world’s, as well as Napa’s, most profound Cabernet Sauvignons is the 2,000 or so case production of Shafer’s Hillside Select. Made from their finest parcels in Stags Leap, the wine spends nearly 32 months in 100% new oak. This is a wine that usually has 20-30 years of aging potential. The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is showing even better than it did last year. A much sexier, opulent, flamboyant style of wine with notes of black currant liqueur intermixed with toasty new oak, charcoal, smoke, barbecue spices, and oodles of fruit, this wine has fabulous richness in an exuberant, sexy style, and a long, heady layered finish with nothing out of balance. The integration of acidity, tannin, wood, and alcohol are brilliant. This is a great wine to drink over the next two decades, if not longer.

2003 Shafer Hillside Select  - RP 95 - One of the world’s, as well as Napa’s, most profound Cabernet Sauvignons is the 2,000 or so case production of Shafer’s Hillside Select. Made from their finest parcels in Stags Leap, the wine spends nearly 32 months in 100% new oak. This is a wine that usually has 20-30 years of aging potential. 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select (just released) shows some graphite and pain grille notes intermixed with creme de cassis, licorice, camphor, and some spice box. Full-bodied, powerful, with fabulous fruit, silky tannins, and an intense mouthfeel, this is a gorgeous wine to drink over the next 20-25 years.

2002 Shafer Hillside Select - RP 100 - One of the world’s most extraordinary Cabernet Sauvignons is the 1,800-2,400-case offering of Shafer’s Hillside Select. It was a treat to re-taste the utterly perfect 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. A dark purple color is accompanied by a gorgeously powerful nose of pure creme de cassis, pain grille, flowers, licorice, and spice box. Full-bodied with multiple dimensions, superb purity, layers of fruit, and a blockbuster finish, it is an amazing offering. This wine should drink well young yet evolve for 2-3 decades.

2001 Shafer Hillside Select - RP 99 - Shafer’s flagship wine is the 2,000 case cuvee of Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak prior to bottling, it is one of the world’s greatest Cabernet Sauvignons. Like many of the top wines of the vintage, the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has closed down, but it reveals impressive potential. Its dense purple color is accompanied by an exquisite bouquet of charcoal, sweet oak, black currant liqueur, and graphite. Full-bodied and powerful, with superb intensity, length, persistence, purity, and texture, it should either be decanted for several hours in advance, or given another 2-4 years of bottle age. Drink it over the following 20-25 years.