Our Provenance Guarantee
Purchase with confidence. All of our wines are selectively sourced and thoroughly inspected for authenticity and signs of poor storage. Accepted bottles are preserved in our climate-controlled cellar until they reach your doorstep. We have no storefront and no walk-in traffic, so nothing is moved or handled between inspection and shipping.
The bottle you see photographed is the bottle you receive (or fundamentally identical when multiple bottles are listed), and our commitment to you is that it arrives as represented. If it doesn’t, we want to hear from you.
Ratings & Tasting Notes:
97 points — James Suckling (barrel sample)
Bright fruit, currants and plums on a powerful, structured palate with plenty of tannin and a long finish. Suckling rated it from barrel and was eager to taste it in bottle.
96 points — Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
Structured, with firm tannins but “gorgeous depth and sheer power.” Dark fruit, leather, licorice, spice and tar, with maturity anticipated from 2016 through 2028.
96 points — Wine Spectator
Muscular and tightly wound but well focused, with dried currant, blackberry, spice and licorice. “Demands cellaring.” Best from 2014 through 2028.
94 points — Wine & Spirits
Rich, fragrant black currant fruit and chocolate-scented tannins: a vibrant 2008 that reaches high while staying grounded, earthy and real.
92 points — Wine Enthusiast
Young, tannic and juicy, with blackberry, cherry and cassis from 100% new French oak barrels, and built to develop bottle complexity. A Cellar Selection.
Cult Wines International Notes:
Shafer Vineyards was founded in 1972 when John Shafer left publishing and bought a hillside property in what became the Stags Leap District. His son Doug and longtime winemaker Elias Fernandez turned it into one of Napa’s benchmark estates, and Hillside Select, made entirely from Cabernet Sauvignon grown on the estate’s steep, rocky slopes, is regularly counted among California’s greatest wines.
The 2008 is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in new French oak. Critics praised its power and structure on release, and with well over a decade in bottle it should now be showing the perfumed elegance the winery describes: blackberry, black cherry, cassis, dark chocolate, black tea, spice and toast, with silky, ripe tannins and a long finish.
Bottle Size:
750 mL
Storage History:
Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.
Condition:
Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.
Outstanding condition.
