Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 750ml
Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 750ml
Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California
Notes from the Winemaker
The 2013 Hillside Select is a rich, expansive wine balanced by liveliness and energetic aromas and flavors. This vintage is a liquid feast of black cherry, dark chocolate, briar fruit, black tea, cola, blackberry, tobacco, and a touch of aromatic herbs. All this abundance comes wrapped in slate minerality while wearing its Stags Leap District tannins with silky ease. This 100% hillside Cabernet Sauvignon but it is sure to offer greater riches with time in your cellar.
Reviews and Accolades
99 Points/James Suckling
Wonderful floral aromas with perfumed roses plus hints of blackcurrants and spearmint. Full-bodied and so powerful and muscular but always showing the brightness and beauty of fruit. Winemakers say this reminds them of the 1978, their first year. It certainly has the structure —"those tannins" as they put it. Finish is so impressive with tar, iron and spices. Available in September 2017. Try in 2023.
98 Points/Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select will probably hit the magic three-digit score, but it is a more backward style of wine, although probably even more concentrated than the 2012, and that’s saying something. Fabulous potential of 30-50 years is evident in this profound bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon that is inky blue/black to the rim and offers up notes of charcoal embers, scorched earth, blackberries, cassis, blueberries, a hint of coffee, and background barrique smells. Massively concentrated but incredibly elegant and poised, this is a wine of great energy and vibrancy. It is fabulously deep, built like a skyscraper, and set for an incredibly long life. Try not to consume a bottle for at least another 4-5 years and then watch the magic unfold.
Rating: 98+
98 Points/Wine Enthusiast
Among the Napa Valley’s most crowning achievements in Cabernet, this vintage of Hillside Select is stunning, bright and beguiling in every way. Intensely layered, its interwoven flavors burst in black licorice, dark chocolate, pipe tobacco, gun smoke and garrigue. Spicy oak adds to the power and weight. Drinkable now, it will show even greater finesse in time; enjoy best 2023–2033 and possibly beyond.
Cellar Selection
Rating: 98+
95 Points/Tasting Panel
Fragrant with plum and rich flavors of toasty oak; lush texture and complexity; elegant and concentrated, long and balanced; a Napa Valley superstar aged 32 months in 100% new 60-gallon French oak barrels.
94 Points/Wine Spectator
Graceful and supple, rich and loamy, tilted toward the savory, herbal side of Cabernet, with modest cherry and currant notes. Complex throughout. Drink now through 2030.
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