Another impressive showing for this consistently stylish, authoritatively powerful wine, Shafer's 1986 Hillside Select exhibits a deep ruby/purple color with minor lightening at the edge. The fragrant aromatic profile includes scents of blackcurrants, chocolate, hickory smoke, and herbs. Thick, jammy, ripe flavors are full-bodied, layered, and delicious. This wine comes across as youthful, but powerfully assertive, well-knit, and balanced. Drink it over the next dozen years.The tasting notes for this section are from two single blind tastings, one conducted in May, 1996, in California, and the other in June, 1996, in Baltimore.

The 1986 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was the only wine that tasted somewhat fatigued and oxidized. Notes of old plums, figs and prunes are present in this 1986.