Another impressive showing for this consistently stylish, authoritatively powerful wine, Shafer's 1986 Hillside Select exhibits a deep ruby/purple color with minor lightening at the edge. The fragrant aromatic profile includes scents of blackcurrants, chocolate, hickory smoke, and herbs. Thick, jammy, ripe flavors are full-bodied, layered, and delicious. This wine comes across as youthful, but powerfully assertive, well-knit, and balanced. Drink it over the next dozen years. The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.

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Dark, ripe, rich and intense, it's one of the more complex and concentrated '86s, with a long life still ahead. The core of currant, mineral, cherry, coffee and herb flavors is young and lively and the tannins are ripe and vibrant.--1986 California Cabernet horizontal. 2,000 cases made.

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