2008 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
(15.5% alcohol): Bright, full medium ruby. Extravagant, superripe aromas of cassis, blackberry, black cherry, graphite, minerals and espresso. Wonderfully plush, liqueur-like and sweet, showing a distinctly herbal quality that energizes the deep dark fruits in the middle palate. Very dense, thick wine with the stuffing to support its firm tannins. The extremely long, slowly rising finish conveys repeating notes of liqueur-like ripeness yet comes across as quite youthful, even backward. This wine should continue to evolve and harmonize with further aging. Incidentally, this bottle showed considerably more pliancy, sweetness and richness than a much tighter sample that was part of my extensive vertical tasting at the winery two years ago and I have extended my projected peak drinking range substantially as a result.
Critic scores
Average Score
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
More reviews and scores
(15.5% alcohol): Dark red. Highly perfumed scents of redcurrant, wild sage, licorice, spices and vanillin oak. Then vibrant but a bit pinched in the mouth, with firm acidity accenting the wine's herbal and salty elements. Narrower than the preceding three vintages but aromatically complex and full of life. Finishes with slightly dry-edged tannins and a repeating herbal quality. Does this wine have enough fruit to expand with more time in bottle?
Vanilla, toast, blackcurrants, graphite, earth and foresty notes are all present in the 2008 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. It has great fruit, a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel, and quite a perfumed personality, but not quite the intensity and length of its predecessor. It could be one of those troublesome pairings where this just happened to follow an out-of-this-world compelling wine. The 2008 is certainly outstanding, just not one of the all-time greats.
(15.5% alcohol; 100% cabernet sauvignon): Good bright, full ruby. Blackberry, black cherry, mocha and chocolatey oak on the almost liqueur-like nose. Plush, densely packed and slightly high-toned, but with surprising acidity to energize the very ripe flavors of black raspberry, licorice, coffee, mocha and spices. Finishes with substantial ripe, dusty tannins and compelling early sweetness. Still, I'd want to hold this for at least a few years.
About the producer
The site of Shafer has been around since 1880, and grapes continued to be grown here, even during prohibition. It is said that some wine was made here during that time. In 1972, John Shafer bought the property in the Stag’s Leap district, he immediately began planting the Cabernet on the hillside.