Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select 2001

100/100 PP

"The 2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is the first of these back-to-back perfect wines from Shafer that, at age 13, is still a baby, but, wow, what an amazing wine. A fabulous growing season produced a wine with inky/purple black color, stunning crème de cassis notes, with additional hints of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, cedar wood and forest floor. It is full-bodied, sensationally concentrated, with a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood and alcohol. This is a great, monumental Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is still an infant, at age 13, going on 14. This has got at least three decades of life left in it, and probably won’t hit its peak for another 5-7 years."
(Robert M. Parker, Jr., robertparker.com)

100/100 PP

"I should not be surprised that the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select merited a perfect rating since I rated it 99 eight years ago. I also gave the 2002 Hillside Select a perfect rating. Kudos to Doug and John Shafer for creating two perfect wines in back to back vintages. The 2001 is a big wine (14.9% natural alcohol), but the alcohol is buried beneath an avalanche of creme de cassis, wood smoke, toast, licorice and spring flower characteristics. Super full-bodied with fabulous fruit purity, a broad, expansive mouthfeel, lots of glycerin and a huge upside, this 2001 is still an infant at age ten, but it is approachable as well as compelling to smell and taste. It has at least another three decades of aging potential ahead of it and is one of the great young, legendary classics from Napa Valley. It was a privilege to taste. There are approximately 2,000 cases of this cuvee which comes from Shafer’s hillside vineyards in the Stags Leap area and is aged 32 months in 100% new French oak."
(Robert M. Parker, Jr., robertparker.com)

98/100 WE

"No Cabernet smells better. This is an enormously attractive, well-oaked wine constituted from the best possible fruit. In the mouth, it immediately seduces. Shafer knows it has to rise to expectations with this wine, and the 2001 does not disappoint. The fruit is spectacular, all cassis. The oak is rich, flamboyant and delicious. Structurally, the wine has the best tannin-acid structure Napa is capable of. Immediately delicious now, this wine should develop over the next 10 years."
(WineEnthusiast.com)

96+-99/100 WT

"Shafer Hillside Select hatte 2010 eine dekadent süße Frucht, Opulenz, süßer Schmelz, aber auch ein gutes Rückrat und eine, für solch ein dickes Ding, erstaunliche Eleganz und Frische – 99/100. Etwas zurückhaltend 2017 , aber da ist soviel Kraft, soviel Substanz, der kommt in ein paar Jahren wieder – WT96+. Sehr mächtig und füllig 2018 zu Anfang, auch etwas mastig, legte deutlich im Glas zu und glättete sich, wurde immer schmelziger und eleganter – WT98. Zeigte sich 2019 on seiner allerbesten Seite, sehr komplex, mineralisch und verband Opulenz mit großartiger Struktur."
(Achim Becker, wineterminator.com)