Napa's 2022 growing season will be remembered for its Labor Day heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 43°C for several days in early September. Shafer's Hillside Select wine, harvested on volcanic terraces at the base of the Stags Leap Palisades, benefited from slope drainage and old vine roots. Yields were reduced and maturation accelerated, resulting in a concentrated, dense and structured wine in 2022. This is a muscular vintage, even by Hillside Select standards.
Robert Parker (98)
Tasted as a prospective blend—the wine is still in barrel—Shafer's 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another super effort from the team at Shafer and Winemaker Elias Fernandez, who recently celebrated his 40th anniversary with the winery. It's a wonderfully floral and fragrant version of Hillside at this stage of its evolution, with hints of violets accenting black cherries and cassis; the 100% new French oak has seemingly already been absorbed into the wine. The full-bodied palate is concentrated and firmly tannic, the finish long and reasonably elegant for such a young wine.
James Suckling (97)
This offers the classic richness and breadth of the Shafer property, backed by a firm structure of fine-grained tannins and the cool, collected character of the Stags Leap district. It is saturated with dark cherries, dried blueberries, blackcurrants, graphite and bittersweet chocolate. At first sip expansive and ripe, then firmer and more linear on the palate due to the persistent tannins and overall fine balance.
Vinous (96)
The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is very clearly one of the wines of the vintage. Sleek, silky and polished to the core, the 2022 impresses with its exceptional balance and finesse. Blood orange, red plum, mocha, spice, cedar and new leather are some of the many notes that take shape in the glass. The 2022 is a bit light in textural feel, as intense heat blocked ripening. Longtime winemaker Elias Fernandez certainly got the best this challenging vintage had to offer.
Jeb Dunnuck (96)
Beautifully done, with a non-2022-like level of freshness and purity, the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select reveals blackcurrant, spice, flowers, subtle chocolate, and graphite that all develop nicely with time in the glass. It's medium to full-bodied on the palate and has a pure, layered mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. This incredibly successful 2022 can be drunk any time over the coming two decades.
