Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select, Shafer Vineyards 2005

Like many 2005s (I’ll be doing a retrospective of this vintage in several months and look forward to it), this was a vintage that seemed to start off relatively uneventfully and was rather slow to reveal its true merit early in life. Like a thoroughbred race horse, it just seemed to get stronger and stronger in barrel, and now that the wines have been in bottle, they continue to strut their stuff. Of course, 2004 got much more publicity because of the heat, and after 2001 and 2002, there weren’t a lot of superlatives left to give, but 2005 has turned out to be a great vintage and the 2005 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is certainly one of the superstars of the vintage. Flirting with perfection, this wine is still youthful coming up on ten years of age. A wine of great intensity, it shows off a boatload of blackcurrant liqueur, charcoal and spring flowers, with hints of blackberry and blueberry for additional complexity. The wine has stunning richness and purity, a multidimensional, full-bodied mouthfeel, impeccable purity and that flawless integration of acidity, wood, tannin and alcohol that the Shafer’s and winemaker Elias Fernandez routinely achieve. This is a beauty for drinking now or over the next 30-plus years, although I think patience suggests holding onto it for further nuances to develop over the next 5-10 years.