Shafer’s signature wine, Hillside Select, is made entirely from the best lots of Cabernet Sauvignon grown on  the winery’s hillside estate vineyards in Stags Leap District. The hillside fruit is small and deeply coloured. A reserve wine of limited production, it is undeniably a wine of place, exemplifying the rich, concentrated flavours and velvety texture of Stags Leap District fruit.

In the glass you’ll find rich, opulent aromas of blackberry, cocoa, black cherry, rhubarb, rose water, and espresso. The mouth is a juicy, energetic cascade of summer bramble fruit, cassis, black liquorice, red plum, fresh cracked pepper, and baking spice with a lengthy, compelling finish. Aged a full four years (32 months in French oak) prior to release. All this decadence comes wrapped in ripe tannins for long-term aging in your cellar.

“Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak. It is quintessentially Stags Leap, with grapes grown on Shafer’s famous Hillside estate vineyard, roughly 25ha, with very shallow volcanic tufa soils. It’s a barrel selection of the very best blocks. A total of 2,900 cases were produced. Such a beautifully balanced wine with tremendous staying power and expressive Stags Leap ironstone minerality with heady sagebrush and conifer notes with white pepper and walnut husk. The wine has an impressive depth of red-toned fruit on the mid-palate framed by tannins that practically dance across the palate, exuding length, tension, and power. Huckleberry and black cherry fruits, black truffle, dried violets, graphite, and salted dark chocolate are all framed by racy acidity, which keeps everything fresh and lifted. The 2021 releases mark Elias Fernandez’s 38th vintage as Shafer’s winemaker. He was hired by John Shafer in 1984, two weeks out of UC Davis.”
99 points, Jonathan Cristaldi, Decanter, September 2024

“The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was tasted as a barrel sample. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out with powerful notes of creme de cassis, plum preserves, and juicy blueberries giving way to an undercurrent of tar, candied violets, and star anise. The full-bodied palate is concentrated and impactful, delivering a firm, grainy texture and well-knit freshness to support the generous black and blue fruits, finishing long with loads of mineral and exotic spices sparks. This is impressive!”
98-100, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Independent, November 2023