2016 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Tasting notes
From a benchmark, cooler vintage for Napa, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is reminiscent of the 2010 with its pure, focused, yet massive and concentrated style. Giving up incredible cassis fruits, it has a brilliant sense of chalky minerality, a layered, opulent mid-palate, perfectly integrated oak, and more floral, charcoal, and graphite aromatics with time in the glass. It unquestionably offers pleasure today yet needs another 7-8 years to hit its prime drinking plateau, and it will keep through 2066.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
A beautiful nose of pitted cherries, redcurrants, fresh herbs and violets. Full-bodied with fine, structured tannins. More gravelly, mineral and dark than the nose lets on. Savory almost. Terrific depth and concentration that keeps the palate flavorful through the generous finish. Chocolate, sage, rosemary, bark and moss. Layered. Superb wine. Needs time to come together.
Very deep, vibrant purple-black colored, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select strides confidently out of the glass with expressive notions of blueberry preserves, Black Forest cake, cassis and cedar chest with touches of pencil lead, licorice, violets and sandalwood plus a an exotic waft of Indian spices. The rich, densely packed, full-bodied palate is at once thrillingly hedonic and perfectly poised, featuring a rock-solid frame of firm, exquisitely ripe tannins and tons of freshness, finishing epically long and with stunning opulence. Bravo!
About the producer
The site of Shafer has been around since 1880, and grapes continued to be grown here, even during prohibition. It is said that some wine was made here during that time. In 1972, John Shafer bought the property in the Stag’s Leap district, he immediately began planting the Cabernet on the hillside.