2017 Shafer, Hillside Select, Stags Leap District

In the running for the wine of the vintage, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is an incredible success and offers more depth, opulence, and purity than just about every other wine out there. Revealing a dense purple color as well as a killer nose of blueberries, chocolate-covered cherries, scorched earth, tobacco, violets, and exotic spices, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a seamless, pure, incredibly layered mouthfeel, building tannins, and a great, great finish. As with most top 2017s, it stays tight and compact on the palate, with notable structure and impressive concentration. It has some up-front appeal given its purity of fruit and balance, yet it's going to take 7-8 years to hit prime time and will be a long-lived bottle of Napa Cabernet. Hats off to Doug Shafer and the team for yet another magical Cabernet Sauvignon!

Hillside Select is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon produced each vintage from carefully selected blocks – including Sunspot, John’s Upper Seven, Venado Ilegal and Firebreak – of the hillside vineyards surrounding the winery, designed to express the voluptuous fruit, rich flavours and velvety texture that characterise Stags Leap District grapes. Aged 32 months in 100% new 60-gallon French oak barrels. Very heavy bottle. Deep crimson. Intense with notes of balsam that save it from being cloying. Dry finish with gloss and pace and, I’d like to think, the polish of Stags Leap. Much fresher than I remember from earlier vintages. Not plagued by too much ripeness. (JR)