90 points,

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, August 1996

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.

93 points,

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, June 1995

This is the first vintage where Doug Shafer, the son of proprietor John Shafer, began to recognize that the high acid adjustments were concealing the exceptional fruit possessed by their Hillside Select cuvees. The first of many great Cabernets with a PH over 3.5 (in the case of the 1986, 3.56 - an average PH for high class Cabernet Sauvignon or Bordeaux made from physiologically ripe fruit), this wine exhibits a deep, opaque ruby/purple color, and a gorgeously-scented nose of chocolate, cassis, cedar, and spicy new oak. With outstanding body, concentration, and depth, this fresh, layered, multidimensional Cabernet Sauvignon is supple enough to be drunk, but promises to age effortlessly for another 15-18 years. Following the 1978 and 1979 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignons, this is the most complete and complex wine.

90 points,

Wine Spectator, December 1996

Dark, ripe, rich and intense, it's one of the more complex and concentrated '86s, with a long life still ahead. The core of currant, mineral, cherry, coffee and herb flavors is young and lively and the tannins are ripe and vibrant.--1986 California Cabernet horizontal. 2,000 cases made. (JL)

About Winery

Shafer Vineyards traces its beginnings to 1972 when John Shafer left a 23-year career in the publishing industry and, with his family, moved to the Napa Valley to pursue a second career in wine. After purchasing a 210-acre estate in Napa Valley's Stags Leap District, the Shafer family faced the arduous task of replanting the existing vineyards, which dated to the 1920s, and terracing the steep and rocky hillsides, eventually expanding vineyard acreage to its current 50 acres.Evolving from grape growers to vintners, the Shafers crushed their first Cabernet grapes in 1978 and began construction on their winery a year later.

The first Shafer Cabernet became a benchmark, winning the acclaimed San Francisco Vintners Club taste-off upon release and, over a decade later taking first place in an international blind tasting held in Germany, where it outranked such wines as Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour and Chateau Palmer.

Doug Shafer became winemaker in 1983 after graduating from the University of California at Davis with a degree in enology and viticulture. A year later Elias Fernandez joined the winery as assistant winemaker. Together Doug and Elias have worked closely to forge the Shafer style of quality, consistency and elegance.

Shipping Details

This is a pre-arrival item. You will be contacted once this product has arrived at our warehouse to arrange delivery.

Need it faster? Call us now at (888) 859-4637 for special arrangements.

Free storage available. We offer free 6 months storage for any wine purchased at JJ Buckley. We highly recommend storing your wines during the summer months to avoid heat damage during shipment.

For a shipping quote, add this product to your shopping cart. From there you will be able to enter a zipcode and get a detailed quote. For full details on our shipping policies, click here.