Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select 2011

Hillside Select is produced each vintage from carefully selected blocks of the hillside vineyards surrounding the winery. These grapes are small and deeply coloured, with concentrated flavours enhanced by meticulous winemaking and extensive aging in French oak barrels. Hillside Select consistently expresses the voluptuous fruit, rich flavours and velvety texture that characterize grapes grown in Stags Leap District.

96 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

Possibly the Cabernet Sauvignon of the vintage is Shafer's 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. The wine has a certain Bordelais minerality with an opaque black/purple colour and notes of subtle burning charcoal embers, blueberry, blackberry and graphite. Still, then the richness of Napa kicks in. It's full-bodied with lighter tannins, and no doubt the wine will be on a faster evolutionary track than vintages such as 2010, 2012 and 2013. Nevertheless, the Shafers and Elias said this was the toughest vintage they'd ever experienced. To be able to produce a compelling wine like this is a testament to their extraordinary skills and craftsmanship. This wine can be enjoyed now or cellared for another 15-20 years.

96 Points - James Suckling

Extremely minty with dried flowers, dark berries and currants. Full body but refined, with super-integrated tannins. The wood, ripe fruit, tannin and acid balance are beautiful. Tremendous potential here.

93 Points - Wine Spectator

Openly rich and plush, with a dense core of mocha-laced blackberry, charry oak, subtle spice, hot brick and cedary, and earthy notes, this hints at a rustic character and is edgy at points, yet the core intensity persists. It ends with drying tannins—best from 2017 through 2027.