1998 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select

(14.9% alcohol; production for the Hillside Select in '98 was just three-quarters of a ton per acre, according to Shafer, owing to rain during flowering and the need to eliminate fruit burned during the heat spike---112 degrees!--on July 12): Dark red. Highly aromatic nose combines plum, dried herbs, truffle and game, plus a complicating balsamic cedary quality. Then rather tight in the mouth, in a distinctly cool style, with its plum and berry flavors showing an obvious herbaceousness along with a hint of chocolate. Offers good verve but lacks generosity. The slightly tough tannins turned drier with air. This is fully evolved and should be consumed soon.

The 1998 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was produced during a challenging vintage in Napa Valley with an incredible heat wave in mid-July, with temperatures at the Hillside Select property hitting an astonishing 114 degrees. This was brutal for the grapes, but a strict selection, and as Doug and John Shafer said, “We make no excuses at this winery.” Certainly, this was one of the great successes in this vintage. Very tiny yields from small, rather shriveled berries produced a super-extracted, rich, intense wine that has some smokey barbecue notes along with blackcurrants, cedar wood, wet rocks and background oak and burning embers. There's almost a Graves-like, scorched earth character to this vintage. This medium to full-bodied wine is intense and undeniably one of the top ten wines in Napa Valley. Moreover, it should continue to drink well for another 10-15 years.