SHAFER VINEYARDS Cabernet Sauvignon 'Hillside Select' - Stag's Leap District, Napa Valley 2021 Bottle

Description

The 2021 Shafer Hillside Select is a remarkable Cabernet Sauvignon, earning 99 points from Decanter and Jeb Dunnuck, along with 97 points from Wine Enthusiast. This wine boasts an expressive bouquet of ripe blackcurrant, blackberry, and plum, intertwined with notes of graphite, cedar, and spice. The plush tannins and bright acidity create a beautifully balanced, medium to full-bodied profile that is polished and seamless. Winemaker Elias Fernandez highlights its complexity, merging dark fruit with floral and earthy nuances. The Wine Advocate praises its intense aromas and full-bodied richness, noting its impressive structure and ageing potential. With a drinking window extending to 2050, this exceptional wine promises to provide an extraordinary tasting experience for years to come.

*****

Hillside Select is one of California’s greatest red wines. It is produced from carefully selected blocks surrounding the winery (The Sunspot, John's Upper Seven, Venado Illegal & Firebreak) exclusively in the Stags Leap District. 28 months in 100% new 60-gallon French oak barrels (Allier and Tronçais).

The 2021 Growing Season: 2021 was a Napa Valley classic offering long stretches of warm days and cool nights. By early September the fruit had developed rich color and elegant, pure aromas and flavors.

“The 2021 vintage expresses Hillside Select’s singular elegance, vibrancy, and balance. The aromas lift out of the glass, offering blackberry, cedar, black currant, and just-picked cherry with graceful floral and leather tones. The complexity of the vintage is striking, merging dark fruit with red plum, wet stone, lavender, and black tea. The ripe, seamlessly integrated tannins add depth, precision, and serious structure for decades of aging, all culminating in a long, exquisite finish.” — Elias Fernandez, Winemaker

THE WINE ADVOCATE 99 points
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
Drink Date: 2027 - 2050
All Cabernet Sauvignon from specific hillside blocks on the estate, Shafer's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select spent 28 months in 100% new French oak. It's a big, ripe wine, weighing in at 15.5% alcohol, but it remains harmonious from front to back. Deep, intense aromas of black cherries and cassis are accented by dried spices on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is rich and textural, showing tremendous intensity and length on the finish. Based on how previous examples have aged, this vintage should drink well through 2050.

Now that the dust has largely settled following the 2022 sale of Shafer Vineyards to Shinsegae Property, a Korean firm, readers should be reassured that wine quality remains high. I visited with Managing Director Matthew Sharp and Winemaker Elias Fernandez during my August 2024 trip to Napa and came away impressed with the current and forthcoming vintages.

Sharp has a background in wine sales—he was the winery's commercial director from 2016–2022—and has overseen the acquisition of additional vineyards since his promotion to General Manager and now Managing Director. Controlling fruit sourcing is obviously a focus, and Shafer Vineyards now owns approximately 250 acres of vines. The largest parcel remains the original property, purchased by John Shafer in 1972, but there are 90 acres in Carneros (source of the Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay) and the more recently acquired Wildfoote Ranch (Stags Leap District, 2022) and Altimeter Vineyard (Atlas Peak, 2023).

Fernandez joined Shafer Vineyards in 1984 and was named winemaker in 1994, giving him a string of 40 vintages at the property. He's the long-term institutional memory, seemingly able to remember details of past growing seasons with remarkable acuity. Other winemakers in the Stags Leap District community speak of him and his willingness to offer counsel with reverence. On this visit, we tasted the 1994 and 2004 Hillside Selects, plus the current release 2021 and barrel samples of the 2022 and 2023. To this taster, those earlier vintages are at peak; the newer stuff seems capable of achieving similar 30-year lifespans.
Published: Oct 17, 2024

DECANTER 99 points
Drinking Window: 2024 - 2050
Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak. It is quintessentially Stags Leap, with grapes grown on Shafer's famous Hillside estate vineyard, roughly 25ha, with very shallow volcanic tufa soils. It's a barrel selection of the very best blocks. A total of 2,900 cases were produced. Such a beautifully balanced wine with tremendous staying power and expressive Stags Leap ironstone minerality with heady sagebrush and conifer notes with white pepper and walnut husk. The wine has an impressive depth of red-toned fruit on the mid-palate framed by tannins that practically dance across the palate, exuding length, tension, and power. Huckleberry and black cherry fruits, black truffle, dried violets, graphite, and salted dark chocolate are all framed by racy acidity, which keeps everything fresh and lifted. The 2021 releases mark Elias Fernandez's 38th vintage as Shafer's winemaker. He was hired by John Shafer in 1984, two weeks out of UC Davis.

VINOUS 97-99 points
Drinking window: 2027 - 2041
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is dark, vibrant and explosive. Black cherry, plum, mocha, lavender and cloves race across the palate. Medium in body, with tons of grip, the 2021 is shaping up to be a classic. It's another wine that shows a move towards a more restrained style, although there is certainly plenty of richness and textural depth. - Antonio Galloni. Tasting date: October 2022

WINE ENTHUSIAST 97 points
Profound and full-bodied with an intensity of aromas and flavors, this sophisticated and ample Cabernet Sauvignon has become one of the region's icons. Made from the Shafer's hillside vineyards, this red carries a core of dark fruits, crushed rocks, and savory elements of mushroom followed aromas of aromatic forest. Abundant, fine tannins and a lengthy finish mean the wine will continue to develop with age, but will also benefit from another several years in bottle. Enjoy with prime rib or another cut of succulent meat. Enjoy. — Elaine Chukan Brown