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.

The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is a candidate for wine of the vintage. It continues to gain weight, and is better each time I retaste it. Its opaque purple color is accompanied by gorgeous aromas of graphite, vanilla, black currant liqueur, and minerals. This rich, full-bodied Cabernet offers sweet tannin, a layered texture, and a finish that lasts for 45-50 seconds. It is a splendid accomplishment in a difficult vintage. Anticipated maturity: now-2017. In most vintages there are 2,000 cases of what is undeniably one of the New World's most profound Cabernet Sauvignons, Shafer's Hillside Select. It is one-hundred percent Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 32 months in 100% new French oak (the majority being Taransaud). It is quintessentially Stags Leap, with a Margaux-like elegance as well as the power and layered, textured opulence that comes from northern California's sweet fruit.Tel. (707) 944-2877; Fax (707) 944-9454

An absolute joy, and a very great success for this vintage, which produced so many disappointing Cabernets. Unusually dark. Begins closed, but swirling brings out cassis and loads of smoky oak. Dense and lush, it’s incredibly long on flavor, with fabulous intensity. The reputation of this collector’s wine is undiminished. Cellar Selection. —S.H.——S.H.(12/31/2002)—— 95