Lot 424
SHAFER CABERNET SAUVIGNON HILLSIDE SELECT 1998 (2) WA 95
SHAFER CABERNET SAUVIGNON HILLSIDE SELECT 1999 (1) WA 93+
Lot 424 Details
SHAFER CABERNET SAUVIGNON HILLSIDE SELECT 1998 (2)
Napa Valley.
1 x scraped label
The 1998 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was produced during a challenging vintage in Napa Valley with an incredible heat wave in mid-July, with temperatures at the Hillside Select property hitting an astonishing 114 degrees. This was brutal for the grapes, but a strict selection, and as Doug and John Shafer said, “We make no excuses at this winery.” Certainly, this was one of the great successes in this vintage. Very tiny yields from small, rather shriveled berries produced a super-extracted, rich, intense wine that has some smokey barbecue notes along with blackcurrants, cedar wood, wet rocks and background oak and burning embers. There's almost a Graves-like, scorched earth character to this vintage. This medium to full-bodied wine is intense and undeniably one of the top ten wines in Napa Valley. Moreover, it should continue to drink well for another 10-15 years. December 2014 Drink: 2014-2029 WA 95
SHAFER CABERNET SAUVIGNON HILLSIDE SELECT 1999 (1)
Napa Valley.
A vintage I was never as fond of as many of my colleagues, the 1999 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select certainly proved that they may have been more correct. Certainly not one of the all-time Shafer Hillsides, but nevertheless, a youthful, tannic, firm, structured wine, with more intellectual than hedonistic appeal at age 16, this wine has a dense purple color to the rim, notes of licorice, tobacco leaf, blackcurrants, followed by relatively high acids for a Hillside Select (or at least they present themselves that way) with some rather massive tannin. This is a big, medium to full-bodied wine with a Bordeaux-like structure imposed on it. It’s still moving in the right direction, and should hit its peak in another 4-5 years and then last for 15-20. December 2014 Drink: 2018-2038 WA 93+