2014 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is a classic wine for the era. It is deep, dark and explosive, with serious depth and tons of texture. Black cherry, espresso, licorice, plum, incense and new leather all come together, building toward its huge, resonant finish. At age ten, the 2014 remains quite youthful. Blood orange, cinnamon and leather linger on the potent, driving close.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
The famous wine lives up to its mighty reputation in this vintage. Densely packed in tones of red currant, cassis and cocoa powder, the palate offers a sublime texture that lingers despite an overall powerful punch of structure and tannin. Elements of crushed rock and black licorice unfold on the finish. — Virginie Boone
Lastly, the flagship 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon (the only vintage where it wasn’t 100% was in 1984, when it included 9% Cabernet Franc) brought up all in high-class French oak. A textbook example of the balanced nature of the 2014 vintage, it offers a complex bouquet of crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, tobacco leaf, and subtle minerality. Finesse-driven yet powerful on the palate, with full-bodied richness, its tannin structure is perfectly integrated into the wine, it has notable purity and freshness, and a great finish. It’s relatively approachable by this cuvée’s standard but has another 20-30 years of longevity ahead of it.
Shafer's flagship wine. From The Sunspot, John’s Folly and Bench blocks, all in Stags Leap District. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, matured for three months in 100% Allier and Tronçais barrels. Deep crimson. Much fresher on the nose than it used to be. Tannins more in evidence than in the less expensive Shafer wines – more rigour. Chalky finish without obvious heat despite the alcohol level. Good graphite undertow. The merest hint of cocoa. Not the most glorious, complex or persistent finish but certainly a well-made wine. (JR)
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.