Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select Stags Leap District 2001

100 points Robert Parker: "I should not be surprised that the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select merited a perfect rating since I rated it 99 eight years ago. I also gave the 2002 Hillside Select a perfect rating. Kudos to Doug and John Shafer for creating two perfect wines in back to back vintages. The 2001 is a big wine (14.9% natural alcohol), but the alcohol is buried beneath an avalanche of creme de cassis, wood smoke, toast, licorice and spring flower characteristics. Super full-bodied with fabulous fruit purity, a broad, expansive mouthfeel, lots of glycerin and a huge upside, this 2001 is still an infant at age ten, but it is approachable as well as compelling to smell and taste. It has at least another three decades of aging potential ahead of it and is one of the great young, legendary classics from Napa Valley. It was a privilege to taste. There are approximately 2,000 cases of this cuvee which comes from Shafer’s hillside vineyards in the Stags Leap area and is aged 32 months in 100% new French oak. (Jun 2011)"

98 points Wine Enthusiast: "No Cabernet smells better. This is an enormously attractive, well-oaked wine constituted from the best possible fruit. In the mouth, it immediately seduces. Shafer knows it has to rise to expectations with this wine, and the 2001 does not disappoint. The fruit is spectacular, all cassis. The oak is rich, flamboyant and delicious. Structurally, the wine has the best tannin-acid structure Napa is capable of. Immediately delicious now, this wine should develop over the next 10 years. (12/31/05)"

95 points Wine Spectator: "A dazzling wine, enormously complex and concentrated, yet elegant and polished. The fragrant rose petal and violet aromas lead to a plush core of ripe plum, black cherry and currant flavors that offer layers of depth and richness, finishing with a pretty mocha and chocolaty aftertaste. (11/15/04)"

95+ points Stephen Tanzer (Vinous): "(14.9% alcohol): Good dark red. Knockout nose captures the site's full aromatic range: plum, blackcurrant, dried sage, licorice, dark chocolate, musky tobacco, game, lead pencil and tar. Superconcentrated and impressively dense and thick but still held in check by a compelling juiciness; this wine wants to explode! The red fruit and plum flavors are complicated by graphite minerality and cedary oak. Finishes with serious, thick tannins that are totally supported by the wine's mid-palate material. The very long, vibrant finish suggests a long life ahead. A great vintage for Hillside Select, and still improving. Drink: 2018-2029. (Jul 2016)"

95 points Connoisseurs' Guide: "Dramatic, immensely oaked and highly ripened Cabernets such as this may well bring a frown to those who are simply cannot abide powerhouse wines. And, while there exist more than a few wines that test our limits when it comes to oak and runaway ripeness, the only line crossed here is the one that defines the very best of the genre. Intense and deeply fruited, this stunning bottling delivers a dazzling display of unabashed richness, but never once are its varietal credentials in doubt, and it exhibits an uncanny sense of balance despite its considerable size. How long wines of this style will last is a question that can only be answered by time. We do not see this one peaking for at least seven or eight years, and it could easily hold for twice that time and more. (Dec 2005)"

Stephen Brook (The Finest Wines of California): "Sweet, sensuous, black-currant nose, with coffee tones. Rich if somewhat soft; super-ripe and somewhat flat on the finish, but not overblown. Good length. (Tasted 2008-09)"