Wine Doctrine
2008

Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

Tasted 5 July 2026 Napa Valley · Stags Leap District

A solid performance with this particular bottle. Decanted for a few hours, which really allowed the firm tannins to soften and the black fruit and obsidian notes to emerge. No green peppercorn or pyrazine flavors (as I…

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Shafer
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1986

Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

Napa Valley · Stags Leap District

Gently decanted for an hour in a small vessel. Plum, deep and dark red and black muddled cherry, leather, old cigar, torched orange rind, soil, and black currant.

Reviewed 5 January 2025
2016

Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

Napa Valley · Stags Leap District

Honed, focused, chiseled, mineral, black goth berry-rock, and a mean streak all up and down it, the 2016 HSS is serious business in the best of ways. Give it another 5+ years and be rewarded. It…

Reviewed 25 May 2024
2016

Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

Napa Valley · Stags Leap District

Tannic and drying, the chest on this thing is bumping and thumping with push, thrust, grip and clutch, but the fruit has a difficult time elbowing past the bro-code bullishness of the frame. Black…

Reviewed 6 June 2023
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