2003 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet

Black raspberries, creamy new oak, liquorice and cherry compote meld in an expressive bouquet, introducing a ripe, open-knit and flamboyant palate. While a large-scaled, full-bodied wine, this ranks as a comparative middleweight in the context of Hillside Select. 92 points

Good dark red. The nose conveys an herbaceous element not shown by the 2002 or 2001, offering scents of plum, milk chocolate, tobacco leaf and wild herbs; I might have picked this blind as Merlot. Thick and chunky on the palate but slightly angular. I find this concentrated wine a bit medicinal, even brutal, on the back end. Suggests a wide range of ripeness. Following a disrupted flowering, the estate did a lot of vineyard work to attempt to even out the ripeness. `But we had too much canopy for too little fruit and had to pick quickly during warm conditions at the end,` noted Doug Shafer. 89 points