Shafer Vineyards California Wine Cabernet Sauvignon
Shafer Vineyards
Shafer Vineyards, California Cabernet Sauvignon wine producer profile, wine tasting notes, ratings, reviews, a history of the property, plus information on their wine making techniques and their terroir, along with wine tasting reviews and links.
John Shafer founded Shafer Vineyards back in 1972. He gave up a successful career as a book publisher to become a wine maker. Shafer created the estate from a large purchase of 210 acres of vineyards in the Stags Leap Appellation. Much of the land had to be replanted as it had become completely dilapidated. Large sections of the vineyard had not been tended since the days of Prohibition. Shafer made his first efforts to produce the debut wine from Shafer Vineyards with the 1978 vintage. Their total production that year of Shafer Vineyards was about 1,000 cases.
In 1983, Doug Shafer, the son of John Shafer was promoted to the head winemaker of Shafer Vineyards after graduating from the University of California at Davis with a degree in enology. Shortly after Doug was promoted to winemaker, the family hired Elias Fernandez as the assistant winemaker. Fernandez was eventually promoted to winemaker in 1994 and Doug was named company president.
In 1994 Shafer Vineyards became one of the earliest converts to working exclusively with solar power. They view this as the next step in being green. The first step was practicing sustainable farming techniques at Shafer Vineyards.
Shafer Vineyards produces multiple different wines using the following grapes; Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Syrah. Their top wine is the sublime Shafer Hillside Select. Shafer Hillside Select, with its sensation levels of ripe fruit and intense purity rivals many of the best California Cult wines. While it’s expensive, when compared to the Cult wines, it’s fairly priced. On average Shafer Vineyards produces close to 32,000 cases of wine per year.
Wine Tasting Notes
Displaying 11 vintages | 53912 Views Sorted by vintage
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2009 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five
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Filled with spicy, black cherries and licorice, this forward style of Cabernet Sauvignon is soft, sweet, round and already tasty.
91 points - Tasted Oct 12, 2012
3518 Views
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2008 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Inky in color, with an intense aroma packed with chocoalte, licorice, jammy plums, spice and earthy scents. Full bodied, powerful and concentrated, the wine ends with a palate filling, opulent, ripe, fat finish.
96 points - Tasted Oct 25, 2012
3910 Views
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2007 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Deep dark, almost inky, black/purple in color, gobs of licorice, blackberry, blue fruit, smoke, coffee, chocolate and vanilla fill your glass. Powerful, dense and packed with layers of perfectly ripe, thick, juicy, black and blue fruit, this intense wine fills your mouth and coats your palate. Opulent in character, this is as good as any of the California Cult wines and sells for a lot less money. While it's expensive, (most California Cabernets are) if you're seeking a top experience with the best California has to offer, this is the wine to buy.
97 points - Tasted Nov 3, 2011
9279 Views
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2002 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Clearly this is the best non cult, cult wine from California. Still deep in color, licorice, jammy blackberry, vanilla, cassis, earth, cocoa and spice scents are made more complex with the massive, intense wall of delicious, juicy, ripe Cabernet Sauvignon that covers your palate. Shafer Hillside Select is one of the few California Cabernet Sauvignon’s that improve and evolve with age. At a fraction of what the big boys costs, if you’re seeking one fo the best wines from the Golden State, look no further.
97 points - Tasted May 9, 2012
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Shafer Hillside Select often makes one of the top wine California Cabernets. In 1997, it's a reference point wine. But I did not get that from the 2002. It's not so much quality as it is a stylistic preference. 2002 Hillside Select is packed and stacked with jammy blue and black fruit, brown sugar, tobacco and dark cherry notes. The palate is coated with dense layers of jammy, ripe and over ripe berries. This is a concentrated, powerful wine. The finish shows some heat and thick jammy textures. I have friends that love this wine. While I see the quality, the over the top styling's of this wine make it hard to like. Perhaps it's just too much of a good thing.
93 points - Tasted Dec 9, 2010
7820 Views
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2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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The best California Cabernet Sauvignon wines have earned a well deserved reputation for being expensive. Not that Shafer Hillside Select is inexpensive, but it sells for half the price of other Cult wines and on a quality basis, in blind tasting's, it proves time and time again, it's of equal quality with any of the far more pricey wines. Jammy blackberry, smoke, pepper, coffee, blueberry, cassis, truffle, spice and caramel create the complex aromatics. Big, rich and concentrated with waves of juicy, sweet, ripe fruit, the wine ends with a lush, mouth filling finish. The only minor fault is the slight touch of heat in the long finish. Drink now, or over the next 10-15 years.
96 points - Tasted Mar 8, 2012
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This wine had it all. Endless layers of sweet, ripe, black fruit and cassis fruit coat your palate. The perfume was intoxicating. The soft textures and oceans of ripe fruit made for a sublime finish.
97 points - Tasted Apr 15, 2008
1020 Views
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1999 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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If fighters are judged on a pound for pound basis, perhaps wines should be looked at on a point for dollar basis. If we use that scale for high end, California Cabernet Sauvignon, it's hard to see any other wine topping Shafer Hillside Select. This had everything I seek in Cab based wines; complex aromas with fresh blackberries, licorice, earth and a touch of oak, rich, lush textures and a long, fresh, ripe, balanced finish that made me want to taste it again and again. Served with a rare steak, I was loving it!
96 points - Tasted May 9, 2013
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Now we're talking! With a beautiful perfume packed with smoke, ripe blackberry, cherry, licorice and an array of spices, the wine is rich, deep, powerful and balanced. Polished tannins and layers of ripe fruits make this a treat to taste. It' s drinking great today. I own a few bottles and do not see any hurry to drink this wine.
96 points - Tasted Oct 6, 2012
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Still young, this deeply colored, corpulent mouthful of dense, juicy, ripe fruit offers everything a great California wine needs. Massive amounts of intense, black fruit are found in every sip. The long, clean, pure finish is a delight to taste. Everything in this wine is in perfect balance.
97 points - Tasted Sep 25, 2009
959 Views
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1997 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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From 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, this could be the best non cult Cabernet made in America. With stunning levels of concentrated, sweet, ripe, jammy, polished fruit, velvet textures, chocolate, blueberry, smoke, vanilla, boysenberry, blackberry jam, truffle and cherry, this intense wine coats your mouth in flavor and intensity. The finish seems endless. What a treat! This is probably my favorite vintage of this stunning wine yet produced.
99 points - Tasted Nov 29, 2011
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Intense aromatics, purity, depth of concentration and flavor coupled with perfect balance, ripeness, opulence and a long finsh that remained for over a minute makes this wine a stunning experience to taste.
99 points - Tasted Apr 21, 2005
1310 Views
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1996 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Produced from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, this beautiful wine is filled with truffle, smoke, coffee, blackberry jam, black cherry, olives and cassis. Full boded and packed with juicy, ripe, sweet, dark berries, the wine ends with a long, powerful, intense sensation of blackberries and dark chocolate covered plums. This is drinking perfectly today. While it might not evolve much, there is no hurry to drink it.
96 points - Tasted Sep 7, 2011
3097 Views
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1995 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Shafer Hillside Select deserves serious consideration as a candidate for the most consistent producer of high end, California Cabernet Sauvignon over the past two decades. The 1995 is right up there with its rich, licorice, black and blue fruit, chocolate personality, dusty tannins and rich black cherry and filled finish. While lacking the levels of concentration found in vintages like 1994, 1997, 2001 or 2002, this is still an outstanding vintage for Hillside Select.
96 points - Tasted Jun 1, 2012
2726 Views
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1994 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select
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Endless waves of complex fruit pour over your palate and please your senses. Still young, this has a great future
97 points - Tasted Feb 10, 2006
882 Views
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1978 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon
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Minerality, tobacco leaf, ash, blackberry, plum, smoke, caramel, earth, spice box and coffee notes created a complex bouquet. Rich, intense, concentrated and packed with layers of sweet, ripe, juicy fruit, this delicious wine ended with a finish of close to 50 seconds! I wish I owned a bottle of the majestic elixir. Rumor has it, part of the reason for the wines success was in picking extremely ripe fruit, by accident. The fruit was harvested later than the Shafer's wanted, because they had trouble finding enough pickers for their debut wine.
97 points - Tasted Dec 21, 2012
807 Views
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