California

Rating

96

Release Price

$45 - 55

Drink Date

1993 - 2010

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

26th Oct 1993

Source

89, The Wine Advocate

There were 6,500 cases produced of the 1987 Dominus. It is one of the great wines of the vintage in a year when a handful of California producers made profound Cabernets (i.e., Robert Mondavi Reserve, Dunn Howell Mountain, and Chateau Montelena). The wine is beginning to shut down, but it still displays a rich ruby color and an intensely spicy, fragrant nose of toasty vanillin oak, cassis, and cedar. In the mouth, this medium to full-bodied wine displays considerable tannins, fine integrated acidity, and an opulent, rich, spicy finish. I would suggest cellaring it for another 3-4 years; it should easily keep through the first decade of the next century.

Rating

92

Release Price

$55 - 60

Drink Date

1995 - 2010

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

23rd Feb 1995

Source

97, The Wine Advocate

Opus One's 1991 is a gorgeously rich, opaque ruby/purple-colored wine with a knock-out nose of smoke, cassis, vanilla, and a whiff of herbs and licorice. Full-bodied, with surprisingly supple, concentrated, chocolatey, cassis, and blackcurrant flavors that ooze across the palate, this voluptuously-textured example of Opus One is atypical in a vintage that produced so many backward wines. There is no question the wine possesses plenty of tannin, but it is admirably concealed by the copious quantities of concentrated fruit. This Opus can be drunk now as well as over the next 15+ years.

Rating

99

Release Price

$110

Drink Date

2003 - 2030

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

1st Jan 2000

Source

126, The Wine Advocate

The 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select possesses lots of fatness in the mid-palate. There is plenty of tannin in this full-bodied, rich effort. It is remarkable how the finest California Cabernets combine extraordinary power and richness with balance and elegance. A stupendous wine, it is worth a special effort to obtain. Anticipated maturity: 2003-2030. 

Rating

98

Release Price

$125

Drink Date

2000 - 2030

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

23rd Dec 2000

Source

132, The Wine Advocate

Since 1991, Shafer's Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon has unquestionably been one of the top dozen or so California Cabernets. Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged 32 months in 100% French oak casks (the majority Taransaud), it possesses the elegance and finesse one would expect from the Stags Leap area, but also monumental power, richness, and intensity. The 1996 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is one of the vintage's super-stars. Its opaque purple color is accompanied by super aromatics, immense body, great fruit extraction, superb purity and overall symmetry, as well as a 40+ second finish. Revealing exceptional intensity (but no heaviness) as well as perfectly integrated acidity, tannin, and alcohol, this fabulous Cabernet will drink wonderfully for three decades.

Rating

100

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2013 - 2033

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

30th Nov 2013

Source

1113, The Wine Advocate

An inky/plum/purple color is accompanied by a stunning bouquet of violets, charcoal, creme de cassis and a hint of toast. Prodigious when it hits the palate with a full-bodied expansiveness, there is not a hard edge to be found in the 1997, only velvety tannins, compelling depth and fruit intensity, and stunning purity. It is a perfect expression of Napa viticulture and wine that should continue to age effortlessly for two decades or more. An ideal warm, dry spring, June and July was followed by a surprisingly cool August that slowed down what looked to be rapid sugar accumulation in the grapes. September's temperatures were average to above average, without any potentially damaging heat spikes. This allowed the harvest to unfurl slowly, with no stress or imminent danger. For many Napa Cabernet Sauvignons, this resulted in one of the top vintages of the nineties. Consumers, observers and wine critics will undoubtedly argue for decades over which vintage of the nineties turned out to be the finest – 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995 or 1997. The 1997 Insignia is a 20,000-case blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, with 60% coming from estate vineyards and 40% from growers. The alcohol came in at 13.8%.

Rating

(90 - 92)

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2006 - 2020

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

31st Aug 2002

Source

142, The Wine Advocate

The 1999 Vecina, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon offering, exhibits aromas of graphite, tar, coffee, and creme de cassis. It is more austere and less charming and seductive than the 1999 "S". This powerful, muscular Cabernet will be at its best between 2006-2020. 

The 2001 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is the first of these back-to-back perfect wines from Shafer that, at age 13, is still a baby, but, wow, what an amazing wine. A fabulous growing season produced a wine with inky/purple black color, stunning crème de cassis notes, with additional hints of lead pencil shavings, spring flowers, cedar wood and forest floor. It is full-bodied, sensationally concentrated, with a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood and alcohol. This is a great, monumental Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that is still an infant, at age 13, going on 14. This has got at least three decades of life left in it, and probably won’t hit its peak for another 5-7 years.

Score: 100Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (216), December 2014

Rating

99+

Release Price

NA

Drink Date

2011 - 2031

Reviewed by

Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Issue Date

2nd May 2011

Source

195, The Wine Advocate

A blend of 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 7% Cabernet Franc, this is the most open-knit, Pomerol-like wine of the tasting. Ripe and exuberant, it offers up notes of kirsch, blackberry liqueur, mocha, espresso and chocolate. A dense purple color with the same saturation point as the 2001, but with a totally different personality, it is a friendly, endearing, voluptuous, silky, viscous, hedonistic yet compelling wine of great complexity. Enjoy it now and over the next 20 years. I originally rated it 98 points.

There are 860 cases of the 2003 Papa, a blend of 97% Syrah, 2% Mourvedre, and 1% Grenache sourced from six different vineyards. An old black and white photograph of Manfred Krankl’s father holding a baby with a head the size of a large watermelon (presumably Manfred) serves as the label for this wine, which has just about everything one could want in a great Syrah. It exhibits extraordinary power and richness along with large quantities of sexy, seductive cassis, black cherries, and a chocolaty undertone. Unctuously textured, rich, and full, it will provide amazing drinking over the next 10-15 years.

Score: 98Robert Parker, Wine Advocate (166), August 2006