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All Wines from Shafer Vineyards
Inventory updated: Fri, May 16, 2025 04:02 PM cst
Our vintages of Shafer Vineyards wine currently include: 2000, 2010, 2012, 2015
Flickinger Fine Wines' inventory of Shafer Vineyards wine is listed below. We have an excellent and vast assortment of fine wines to choose from. If you do not see what you are looking for, give us a call and we can suggest another Shafer Vineyards vintage or even another producer that we are sure you will enjoy.
| Producer |
Vint. |
Wine |
Price |
Qty |
Order |
| | USA Red |
| Shafer Vineyards |
2000 |
Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon  |
$239 |
1 |
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| WA 93 (2/2005): The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was performing even better this year than it was last year. While not as weighty and ageworthy as some of the more hallowed vintages, it is a seriously endowed wine. Deep ruby/purple to the rim, with a gorgeous nose of creme de cassis, licorice, graphite, spice, and cedar, it is more forward than most vintages, but full-bodied, concentrated, and beautifully seductive. Drink it over the next 15 or so years. |
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2010 |
Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon |
$360 |
2 |
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WA 100 (12/2014): A remarkable wine, the 2010 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select has gone from strength to strength since it was in cask. It is stunningly rich, with classic, fragrant notes of blackcurrants, blackberries, vanilla, graphite and spring flowers. It exhibits an opaque purple color, with a full-bodied, massive mouthfeel, but no heaviness, and again, a flawless integration of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood. It’s classic California Cabernet, but beautifully put together, showing impeccable craftsmanship and fabulous potential. This is obviously a very young, infantile style of Cabernet that won’t hit its prime for at least another decade and last close to half a century, based on how older vintages that were less well-endowed have matured from Shafer.
VM 98+ (12/2014): The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select tastes like a combination of graphite, smoke, pencil shavings, lavender and blueberry jam. But it is the wine's crystalline precision, nuance and towering structure that elevate the Hillside Select to the ranks of one of the very best wines of the year. A pure, viscerally wine, the 2010 is absolutely stunning. Over the last few months I have had the opportunity to taste and drink several bottles of the 2010 and have never been anything less than thrilled. This is a fabulous showing from Shafer.
JS 98 (6/2014): The Shafer family has made compelling reds for decades and this one is a knock-out. Fabulous character of currants, mint, spice and wet earth. Juicy and fruity, with an intense chewy finish. September 2014 release. Needs time to age. Better in 2018.
VM 96+ (5/2014): Deep, bright ruby-blue. Cassis, blackberry, blueberry, mocha and minerals on the nose, along with a mounting component of sweet oak. Sappy and silky on entry, then utterly mouthfilling without being heavy. The thick yet suave black cherry and cassis flavors boast Outstanding intensity and a surprisingly restrained sweetness, with the sexy oak perfectly integrated. Finishes with utterly seamless, noble tannins and great resounding length. A great vintage for this perennial star--and likely to evolve in bottle for at least 15 to 20 years thanks to its Outstanding density and balance.
WS 95 (10/2014): Pure, rich and intense, massive and well-built, with wall-to-wall ripe berry, currant, cedar and spice notes, framed by gutsy, chewy tannins and aided by the long, intense, layered finish. Drink now through 2027. 2,400 cases made. |
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2012 |
Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon |
$319 |
2 |
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WA 100 (10/2016): Shafer’s flagship wine, and one of the world’s greatest Cabernet Sauvignons, is the Hillside Select, which comes from the rocky, volcanic soils on hillsides above the winery. Vineyard production is small, and the wine an incredible example of Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged in 100% new oak for 32 months and bottled unfiltered, this can generally be expected to be one of the top dozen or so Cabernet Sauvignons in virtually any vintage in Napa, and certainly possesses 25 to possibly 50 years of aging potential. The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is a perfect wine. It elicits more than a few “wows” when you smell the incredible notes of charcoal, graphite and subtle toast, buttressed and dominated by blackcurrant, blackberry and blueberry fruit. The purity of these fruits, the multidimensional mouthfeel, the seamless integration of acid, alcohol, tannin and wood are all flawless. The 2012 signature adds an extravagant opulence and density that is just mind-boggling, and the wine is a total hedonistic and intellectual turn-on already, although it has 30+ years of life ahead of it.
JS 98 (1/2016): A wine with incredible finesse and elegance. Blackberry, blueberry, mineral, violet and lavender aromas. Wet earth floor and stone. Full body, very fine tannins and fabulous freshness. The length and polish is truly exceptional. The hint of austerity makes it irresistible. A joy to drink. But has a great future ahead of it.
VM 94+ (7/2016): (15.5% alcohol): Bright red-ruby. Very sexy aromas of black cherry, cassis, mocha and spices, plus a whiff of caramel. Wonderfully fleshy, inviting and sweet, boasting highly concentrated flavors of currant, licorice and narcissus. For all its early mid-palate creaminess, this is quite powerful and youthful, and yet its full, ripe tannins are perfectly supported by its intense dark fruit flavors and impression of extract. |
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2015 |
Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon |
$269 |
4 |
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WA 98+ (10/2018): Very deep purple-black in color, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select comes bounding out of the glass with gregarious scents of crème de cassis, warm black cherries, plum preserves and Indian spices with hints of lilacs, garrigue, stewed tea and cigar box plus a waft of charcuterie. Full-bodied, rich, boldly fruited and wildly decadent, it has a rock-solid frame of grainy tannins and compelling freshness, finishing with loads of earthy and savory layers.
JD 98 (1/2020): I was able to taste four vintages of the estate’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, their Hillside Select. This first growth-like cuvee was first made in 1978 and always comes from their estate Hillside Vineyard just above their estate in Stags Leap. This is a 54-acre south-facing, amphitheater-like vineyard of thin, rocky, volcanic soils. Today the cuvee is always 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that spends upwards of 32 months in new French oak. It is consistently one of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignons in the world. Starting with their 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select, it boasts a deep, saturated purple hue as well as a heavenly bouquet of sweet blueberry and cassis fruits interwoven with plenty of graphite, tobacco, and lead pencil notes, with ample minerality emerging with time in the glass. This was a hot, low-yielding vintage for Napa, and while this beauty is massively concentrated, it’s also silky and seamless, with great tannins, no sense of over-ripeness or heaviness, and a finish that goes on for nearly a minute. This is a brilliant, incredibly sexy wine to enjoy over the coming 30-40 years.
VM 96 (1/2020): The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is a total knock-out. Given the heat and tiny yields of the year, one might reasonably expect a big wine; this, however, has really grown into an elegant, polished Cabernet. Silky, perfumed and rich, the 2015 is exquisitely beautiful, super-elegant and expressive. Gorgeous dark red/purplish fruit, floral and spice inflections lead into the beautifully persistent finish. Antonio Galloni.
WS 95 (10/2020): A big wine waiting to unwind. When it does, the core of steeped plum, blueberry and açaí reduction flavors should stretch out nicely over melted licorice and Black Forest cake elements. A graphite spine holds everything together, while embers of smoldering apple wood flicker through the very long finish. Best from 2022 through 2038. 2,400 cases made. |
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