2005 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

The 2005 Hillside Select has a decidedly red-fruited personality, with aromas of raspberry and redcurrant complementing its deeper notes of cassis, framed by notes of coconut, vanilla and oak spice. On the palate the wine is ripe and quite open-knit, but with just a hint of spirituous heat on the finish that even this exuberant bottling fails to successfully integrate. I don't see this ageing as gracefully as, say, the 1995.

(14.9% alcohol): Dark, bright red. Very fresh on the nose but more reserved and much less explosive today than 2004, offering aromas of black cherry, cassis, dark spices and licorice. Then superconcentrated and tactile on the palate, conveying a lower-pH impression than the 2004. This extremely intense wine still needs time in the cellar to open--and to absorb its vibrant acidity--but the tannins here are fully ripe and suave. Still a bit youthfully stunted but a wine of outstanding energy and incipient savory complexity, with a great future ahead of it.

(14.9% alcohol): Bright, saturated ruby to the rim. Deep, ripe aromas of black cherry, tobacco, macha and earth, plus a complicating note of musky espresso. Plush, suave and very sweet but with terrific harmonious acidity framing the dark berry, spice, dark chocolate and mocha flavors. Wonderfully concentrated, broad, utterly seamless wine with nable tannins and outstanding length. Offers great appeal today but this may yet gain in complexity with more time in bottle. At my vertical tasting at Shafer in March, another outstanding bottle of the 2005 still needed a few more years of aging.