Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap District, Napa Valley, bottled at 15.5% ABV in a standard 750ml format. This vintage earned a perfect 100 points from Jeb Dunnuck and 98+ points from Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, placing it among the most acclaimed California Cabernets of the decade.

Quick Facts: ABV: 15.5%  |  Origin: Stags Leap District, Napa Valley, California  |  Vintage: 2018  |  Producer: Shafer Vineyards

Production & Heritage

Shafer Vineyards has been farming hillside vineyards in the Stags Leap District since the early days of Napa Valley's modern era, and Hillside Select stands as the estate's flagship bottling. Winemaker Elias Fernandez hand-selects individual French oak barrels by smelling each one from a shipment of the finest tight-grain cooperage, choosing only the most aromatic for Hillside Select. The 2018 was aged for 32 months in 100% new French oak, drawn exclusively from hand-harvested hillside fruit — a selection process that distinguishes it from every other wine in the Shafer portfolio.

Tasting Notes

Aroma: An opulent wave of crème de cassis and black raspberry gives way to spring flowers, lead pencil shavings, and a thread of crushed minerality. Violets and Provençal herbs hover in the background, adding fragrant complexity.

Taste: The entry is dense and layered, with blackberry preserves, black cherry, and blueberry pie filling across a muscular mid-palate. As the wine opens, cinnamon, mocha, briar fruit, and hints of smoked meat emerge. Full-bodied yet remarkably toned, it displays a rare combination of power and polished focus.

Finish: Extremely long and finely textured, with black licorice, tar, slate, and dark fruit persisting well after each sip. The tannins are velvety and seamlessly integrated, leaving a lasting impression of energy and precision.

How to Drink Hillside Select 2018

This wine rewards patient, unhurried drinking — serve it at around 64–66°F in a large-bowled Bordeaux glass, ideally after an hour of decanting. Hillside Select 2018 is built for the table: pair it with a bone-in ribeye finished in herb butter, braised short ribs with dark cherry reduction, or a roasted rack of lamb with rosemary and black olive tapenade.

Best For

• Celebrating a milestone vintage year or significant personal achievement
• Gifting a serious Napa Valley Cabernet collector
• Anchoring a multi-course steakhouse dinner at home
• Adding a 100-point wine to a long-term cellar collection

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Hillside Select 2018 taste like? It delivers a concentrated core of crème de cassis, blackberry, and black cherry layered with mocha, cinnamon, and smoked meat, framed by velvety tannins and a long slate-and-licorice finish. The overall impression is one of power held in check by exceptional precision.

How does Hillside Select compare to Opus One? Both are benchmark Napa Valley Cabernet-based wines at comparable price tiers, but Hillside Select is a single-vineyard, 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap District hillside blocks, while Opus One is a Bordeaux-style blend sourced from Oakville. The 2018 Hillside Select also carries a higher critical ceiling, having received a perfect 100 points from Jeb Dunnuck.

Is Hillside Select 2018 good for cellaring? Absolutely — its dense fruit concentration, structured tannins, and 32-month aging in new French oak give it serious aging potential, with most critics suggesting a drinking window extending into the 2040s and beyond. It is already approachable with decanting but will continue to evolve for decades.

Where is Hillside Select made? Hillside Select is produced by Shafer Vineyards in the Stags Leap District AVA of Napa Valley, California. The fruit comes from the estate's steep hillside vineyards, one of the most celebrated terroirs in the entire Napa Valley.

What foods pair well with Hillside Select 2018? Grilled bone-in ribeye or porterhouse steak matches the wine's weight and dark fruit intensity. Braised short ribs with a savory reduction complement its mocha and spice notes. Roasted lamb with herbs and black olive echoes the wine's Provençal aromatics. Aged hard cheeses like Comté or Parmigiano-Reggiano highlight its tannic structure, while dark chocolate torte mirrors its licorice and cassis finish.

What sizes does Hillside Select come in? The standard release is a 750ml bottle, and Shafer has historically offered limited magnum (1.5L) formats for select vintages.

Is Hillside Select 2018 worth the price? Hillside Select positions firmly in the ultra-premium tier of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and the 2018 vintage — with its perfect 100-point Jeb Dunnuck score and 98+ from The Wine Advocate — represents one of the strongest cases for value at this level. Few Napa wines at any price achieve this degree of critical consensus.

Why Hillside Select 2018?

A perfect score from Jeb Dunnuck and near-perfect marks from four additional major publications make the 2018 one of the most decorated Hillside Select vintages in the wine's history. The barrel-by-barrel selection process — where winemaker Elias Fernandez individually smells each French oak barrel before choosing only the most aromatic — is a level of curation rarely seen even among Napa's most celebrated producers. The 2018 growing season delivered exceptional concentration and balance on the Stags Leap hillsides, and the resulting wine channels that quality into a seamless expression of site and skill. For collectors and enthusiasts seeking a defining Napa Valley Cabernet, this vintage sets a benchmark that is difficult to surpass.