Description
2015 SHAFER HILLSIDE SELECT CABERNET SAUVIGNON, STAGS LEAP DISTRICT
Shafer Hillside Select is a wine of a place, produced each vintage from carefully selected blocks of the hillside vineyards surrounding the winery. These grapes are small and deeply colored, with concentrated flavors enhanced by meticulous winemaking and extensive aging in French oak barrels. Hillside Select consistently expresses the voluptuous fruit, rich flavors, and velvety texture that characterize grapes grown in Stags Leap District.
JS98 James Suckling, “There’s an intensely ripe, fresh and vibrant edge to this focused, elegant and assertively pure cabernet that delivers attractive blueberry and cassis aromas in stylish form. The palate arrives as a precise and focused suite of ripe blueberry and blackberry flavors, building smoothly to an attractively crisp and even-paced finish. Another superb edition of this wine. Drink or hold.” James Suckling 98 Points
V97 Vinous “Rich and voluptuous on the palate, with no hard edges at all, the 2015 is a prototypical Hillside Select built on volume. Inky blue/purplish fruit, graphite and chocolate give the wine much of its flamboyant personality, but there is plenty of tannin lurking beneath the fruit as well. The 2015 is clearly going to need time to shed some of its baby fat, but it is hugely promising at this early stage and a fabulous wine by any measure.” Vinous 94-97
“The 2015 vintage gave us smaller berries packed with an immensity of pure, opulent aromas and flavors. This rich, polished hillside Cabernet Sauvignon overflows with briary black fruit, juicy black cherry, racy dried cranberry, black licorice, and freshly cracked pepper with elegant touches of cedar, baking spice, and wet stone. The finish is generous and persistent, while the tannins are ripe and integrated offering both a pleasurable experience now and the kind of structure that promises even more beauty with time.” ~ Elias Fernandez, winemaker
