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  • Country ranking ?

    250
  • Producer ranking ?

    21
  • Decanting time

    2h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Game

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

The Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon has that warm, classic Californian flair to it – loads of ripe and jammed black fruits, smooth tannins and mellow acidity. The wines are always big and as Doug Shafer points out “Napa wines are big wines, no point hiding it.” Still baring the Stag’s Leap District’s smooth style, with tannins that are always very gentle and fine-grained, the Hillside Select is voluminous, but in a discreet manner, making it a very enjoyable and flirtatious wine when young.

Terroir
The legendary Hillside Estate Vineyard is comprised of 14 vineyard blocks, varying from one to nine acres in size, on the slopes of an amphitheatre-like hillside. The thin, volcanic rocky topsoil stands on top of bedrock that forms a very low amount of nutrients for vines, thus yielding small grapes with intense flavours. Due to a series of knolls and outcroppings, the vineyard blocks enjoy various microclimates, which generate grape material with complex flavours. Every afternoon the breeze from San Francisco Bay cools the vineyards, allowing the fruit to retain acidity. The vines suffer and have not
 

Philosophy in winemaking
The Shafers are the pioneers of sustainable vine farming, with over 20 years experience. The production is operated using 100% solar power, recycled water and no chemicals.

In the early 1980s we followed the advice of our textbooks from the U.C. Davis winemaking programme and picked early, added acid, etc. Over time we learnt that wine needs to taste good. And we threw out our textbooks and learned to taste the fruit and let the fruit tell us when to pick and also what style of wine it wanted to become. Obviously I hope the future will be about wines that are produced with authenticity, wines that remain true to their site of origin. However, the fact is the future remains, as always, in the hands of consumers.” Doug Shafer comments.

History 

The winery was established by John Shafer, a former book publisher from Chigago, in 1972. In 1978 the Shafers became vintners after crushing their first wine, Shafer Cabernet, themselves. It was released in 1981. This wine was ranked, ten years later during an international blind tasting in Germany, better than legendary Bordeaux wines like Latour, Margaux and Palmer.

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

14 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Medium, Ruby red and Healthy

ending

Long, Spicy and Extensive

flavors

Blackberry, Cranberry, Coffee, Smoky, Cedar and Mineral

nose

Intense, Seductive, Refined and Tempting

taste

Average in Acidity, High alcohol content, Balanced, Well-Integrated, Well-structured, Youthful, Full-bodied, Harmonious, Elegant, Full and Silky tannins

Verdict

Transparent and nice but not special

Written Notes

Good looking normal size bottle, is in a perfect condition and has by the neck level. Colour is and looking healthy and full. The taste is full, high alcohol content, and average in acidity, full-bodied, with balanced structure and youthful. The finish is long and spicy. This wine is exotic and beauty. Perfectly stored bottles are still very worthy and will last well for another 20-30 years and decant at least over 4h before tasting.
  • 90p

(14.9% alcohol): Healthy dark red. Wonderfully complex, vibrant nose combines cherry, gravelly minerality, smoke, leather and truffley underbrush. Offers a compelling combination of sweetness of fruit and energy; here a subtle hint of herbs just adds to the appeal of this densely packed, utterly fresh wine. Finishes with very suave tannins and terrific lingering perfume. This firmly structured cool-vintage beauty should continue to evolve positively for at least another decade.

  • 95p
This wine shows totally different from the others, it has that Shafer richness, the ripe and lush cassis, blackberry and dark cherry qualities, and still a slightly oaky touch. Compared to all other wines it appears to be several years younger, there so much more primary fruit flavor here, so much more richness, silkiness, intensity, and length. It's a pure Cabernet Sauvignon, predominately from the hillside behind the winery, and it's raised in brand new French oak barrels for around 34 months, which helped to polish the tannins. Style wise it's also the most powerful and the alcohol level touch 15 percent and is of course notable in the finish, but the overall balance is there and it's truly a delicious wine. Of all the wines tasted this evening, this was the one that won most of aeration. Even five hours after it was decanted, it tastes lovely.
  • 94p
A purple red wine with violet hue and almost black core. The nose is opulent and complex with aroma reminiscent of ripe berries, blackcurrants and blackberries, spices notes, fine toasted aromas and elegant oak spicyness. The aroma builds up with the time. On the palate this wine shows an excellent structure with well integrated tannins, powerful yet elegant character. With more oxygen contat the wines develops an elegant sweetness, which makes a pleasant mouthfeel.
  • 95p
Good looking normal size bottle, in an perfect condition and has by the neck level. Colour is ruby red, and looking bright and medium. On the nose it is open, intense, refined, seductive, tempting and rich. The taste is harmonious, elegant, perfumed, vivid, with silky tannins, with balanced, well-structured and well-integrated structure. On the palate it is layered and has blackberry, cranberry, coffee, mineral, smoky, spice, perfumed, glycerin, herbs and cedar flavours. The finish is long, extensive, pure and spicy. This wine is transparent, sexy and excellent. I paid around 500-1k€ a bottle. Perfectly stored bottles are still very worthy and will last well for another 20-30 years and decant at least 2h before tasting. Good value for money.
- (Tasting note created by Tb's AI)
  • 97p
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Information

Origin

Napa, Napa Valley
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