'The 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet vintage belongs in an echelon with the finest of the past two decades.' - Matthew Luczy, Decanter.com, November 2020
The Shafers are going strong. 'Proprietor Doug Shafer and longtime winemaker Elias Fernandez continue to add finesse and refinement,' writes Antonio Galloni. Five decades after this family planted themselves in the Napa Valley, Shafer Vineyards is widely regarded as one of America's greatest wineries. It's about hard work, and trial and error, and sticking with it - and it's also about top vineyard sites, on the rugged, volcanic slopes that look up to the Stags Leap Palisades.
Shafer Hillside Select is one of America's great wines, pure Cabernet Sauvignon, and in 2018 it enjoyed one of the best Napa vintages of the last two decades. Antonio Galloni calls it 'the most elegant and refined Hillside Select I have ever tasted'.
Also in the Shafer portfolio is TD-9, their calling card blend of Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet; the quirky name comes from the tractor John Shafer drove when he first started laying out vineyards here. It's a blend they have refined over the years, and it's a natural match for the Stags Leap soils. One Point Five is a classy, polished Cabernet. And from Carneros in Napa's coolest south-eastern corner comes their zesty, high-energy, citrus-and-stonefruit Red Shoulder Chardonnay. /NT
Offered subject to remaining unsold; for shipment Autumn 2023
