Vertical Tasting of Shafer’s Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

John Shafer, who was then in the
publishing business, bought this estate in Stags Leap in 1972 and moved here
the following year. Shafer was not “a wine guy,” according to his son Doug
Shafer; he had come to check out Napa Valley as an investor and was specifically
looking for hillside vineyards. The 230-acre property, located just
outside the Silverado Trail, included 30 acres of 60-year-old vines—“a messy
field blend,” according to Doug—and Shafer went about replanting everything. He
also began planting the hillsides. The Shafers now have 55 acres of vines on
the estate plus another 170 in their sites a bit farther to the south (in Stags
Leap and Oak Knoll) and in Carneros.

Shafer had to dynamite huge boulders to prepare the steepest
upper vineyard for planting, and this south/southwest-facing parcel was quickly
named “John’s Folly.” The Hillside Select bottling is a barrel selection from
the estate’s hillside vineyards. John’s Folly was the original source for the
Hillside Select and, along with the west-facing Sunspot, is still the core of
the blend.

John Shafer made the first vintage here in 1978, then
constructed a winery in 1980, bottling Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Cabernet
Sauvignon that year. After attending UC/Davis, Doug Shafer came to Napa Valley
in 1982, working short stints at a couple of wineries before joining his father
in 1983, when he made his first vintage. Elias Fernandez began working here in
1984, literally days after he graduated from UC/Davis. After assisting Doug
Shafer until 1990 and serving as co-winemaker for the next four years, he
became the sole winemaker in 1994, and was also given the responsibility of
overseeing the Shafer vineyards, with Doug becoming president.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1468285709549-Shafer%27s+Knoll+block%2C+viewed+from+the+front+gate+copy.JPG"> Shafer's Knoll block, viewed from the front gate&nbsp; 

A Rocky Start, then a
Breakthrough

The early vintages of Shafer’s flagship Cabernet (it was not
actually labeled Hillside Select until the 1983 vintage) were somewhat pinched
wines in the polite, moderately ripe “food style” of the time. Their sensual
appeal was further diminished by sterile filtration and obvious acidification.
The Shafers had mercaptan problems with their 1984 and 1985 vintages, both of
which had to be rebottled prior to release. They brought in consulting
enologist Tony Soter during 1987 and 1988, and he coached them on how to
harvest by taste rather than strictly by the numbers. Still, it was a few more
years before the Shafers made their first seriously good Cabernet. “By 1988 we
had a good idea of what we wanted to do,” said Doug Shafer, “but the weather
didn’t cooperate that year or the next. We tried doing a bigger extraction but
we weren’t getting the big tannins that, say, Howell Mountain provides. I
wanted to be like Bo [Barrett at Chateau Montelena] and like Mayacamas, but our
tannins are naturally mouthcoating and supple. We were not yet confident in our
work.”

Nineteen eighty-nine was the first year that Shafer
drastically reduced acidification and stopped sterile-filtering the Hillside
Select but Shafer refers to more favorable growing season of 1990 as “the first
vintage of the modern era” at the estate. Said winemaker Fernandez: “Today we
don't use acid simply to lower the pH but rather to make the wine balanced
based on taste regardless of where the pH falls.” Since 1989, he noted, the pHs
of the finished wines have normally been in the range of 3.58 to 3.68—on the
low side for rich, ripe Napa Cabernets but a bit higher than the earlier
vintages.

Since the beginning of the ‘90s, the Shafer Hillside Select
has consistently been one of Napa Valley’s richest, deepest and most hedonistic
Cabernets, as well as an outstanding example of its distinctive Stags Leap
District appellation.<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1468335584589-Shafer%27s+Sunspot+Vineyard+copy.JPG"> Shafer's Sunspot Vineyard 

The Characteristics
of the Site and the Wine

Shafer’s home estate features 12 to 24 inches of volcanic
topsoil over shale and weathered bedrock. The vineyards in this craggy
amphitheater in the Stags Leap palisades enjoy sunny south to west exposures,
flowering and ripening early. Shafer describes the site as “mild to warm, not
hot like St. Helena and Calistoga,” noting that it benefits significantly from
late-afternoon sun but that temperatures in summer are moderated by cooling
afternoon breezes from the San Pablo Bay. The soil here features low moisture
retention, and vine density ranges between 800 and 1,000 plants per acre. Owing
to small clusters and small berries, the average yield is just two tons per
acre. Production of the Hillside Select is normally between 2,000 and 2,400
cases per year.

The early vintages were aged in 35% to 50% new oak but
beginning with ]2000 the Hillside Select has spent 32 months in 100% new oak (all
Allier and Tronçais, with preferred coopers including Taransaud, Sylvain, Bel
Air and Séguin-Moreau ). The wine is held back in bottle for at least a year
prior to being shipped and, according to Doug Shafer, “always tastes good on
release, with a rich, sweet core of juicy fruit and soft tannins.” Typical
aromas and flavors include dark fruits, spices, wild herbs, underbrushy soil
tones and bitter chocolate. Interestingly, winemaker Fernandez expressed the
opinion that the Hillside Select wines age in a linear fashion. “When they shut
down, they don't usually come back,” he said, adding that he’s a bit mystified
by the 2006 vintage, “which took forever to develop in the cellar and has
always been tight and tannic.” <img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1468285827561-The+first+half+of+the+Hillside+Select+vertical+copy.JPG"> The first half of the Hillside Select vertical 

Is this Classic Napa
Cabernet or What? 

Although the Hillside Select has long enjoyed a rabid
following, and has been one of Napa Valley’s most consistently outstanding
Cabernets over the past two decades, not everyone is in love with the style.
Some drinkers with Old World palates find the wine too ripe, too sweet, too
oaky, too overwhelming at the dinner table (one Vinous subscriber described it
as “the quintessential blueberry milkshake”). Certainly, alcohol levels have
climbed steadily over the years, from the high 12s in the early years to the
mid-15s today, but then that’s true for most of Napa Valley’s high-end
collectible wines. For his part, Doug Shafer says that he likes to keep
"some good raisins—the ones that
are sweet and juicy.” Again, this approach is hardly out of the mainstream.
Hillside Select is not made in a Médoc style but I could make the case that
it’s the quintessential Napa Cabernet.

I tasted all of the wines reviewed in this article at Shafer
Vineyards in March.&nbsp; For a lot more
detail about the Hillside Select, please <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/multimedia/a-conversation-with-doug-shafer-and-elias-fernandez-jul-2016">view my interview with Shafer and
Fernandez</a>.

<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/wines?wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1419&amp;sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id">See all the wines</a>Now AvailableVinous Napa Valley Maps:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/products/vinousmaps">Oakville (June 2016),&nbsp;</a><a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/products/vinousmaps">Pritchard Hill (June 2016)</a> You Might Also Enjoy Multimedia: <a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/multimedia/a-conversation-with-doug-shafer-and-elias-fernandez-jul-2016">A Conversation&nbsp;with Doug Shafer and Elias Fernandez</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, July 2016Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vertical-tasting-of-spottswoode-cabernet-sauvignon-jun-2016">Vertical Tasting of Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, June 2016 Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/horizontal-tasting-of-napa-valley-s-1995-cabernets-jun-2016">Horizontal Tasting of Napa Valley’s 1995 Cabernets</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, June 2016Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vertical-tasting-of-hundred-acre-kayli-morgan-vineyard-cabernet-sauvignon-june-2016">Vertical Tasting of Hundred Acre Kayli Morgan Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, June 2016 Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vintage-retrospective-2005-napa-valley-cabernet-sauvignon-may-2016">Vintage Retrospective: 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon,</a>&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, May 2016Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/articles/vertical-tastings-of-mondavi-s-cabernet-sauvignon-reserve-and-i-block-to-kalon-vineyard-fume-blanc-may-2016">Vertical Tastings of Mondavi’s Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve and I Block To Kalon Vineyard Fumé Blanc</a>,&nbsp;Stephen Tanzer, May 2016Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.vinous.com/articles/vertical-tasting-of-kongsgaard-syrah-may-2016">Vertical Tasting of Kongsgaard Syrah</a>, Stephen Tanzer, May 2016 Article:&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://www.vinous.com/articles/vertical-tasting-of-phelps-insignia-apr-2016">Vertical Tasting of Phelps Insignia</a>, Stephen Tanzer, April 2016

--Stephen Tanzer

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