Shafer - Hillside Select - Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
Shafer Vineyards is located in the Stags Leap District of California 's Napa Valley . The estate was established in 1972 by John and Bett Shafer . John was an executive at the Scott Foresman publishing house and moved from Chicago to Napa Valley in January 1973 to settle in a dilapidated farmhouse with various outbuildings and farm equipment, including a 1950s International Harvester TD-9 tractor. The main feature of this purchase was 12 hectares of vines planted in the early 1920s: a complantation of red and white grape varieties such as Golden Chasselas, Sauvignon Vert and Zinfandel. The couple's first task was to learn how to care for the already planted fruit, which they would sell when harvested in the fall. The second was to start replanting those aging vines growing on the flattest part of the property. The third step, and the most difficult, was to plant vines on the upper parts of the fallow hillsides. In 1978, John vinified his first Cabernet Sauvignon. Their son, Doug Shafer, joined the family estate in 1983. Beginning in 1988, Shafer moved toward sustainable agriculture , planting grass crops and erecting hawk roosts and owl nest boxes in the vineyards of the District of Stags Leap and Carneros. In 2004, a solar panel was built and Shafer became the first winery in Napa and Sonoma to generate all of its electricity needs from solar energy.
Hillside Select is made from Cabernet Sauvignon , sourced from hillside vineyards in the Stags Leap District, including Sunspot John's Upper 7, Venado Ilegal and Firebreak plots. The wine is aged for 32 months in new French oak barrels from Allier and Tronçais.
Grape variety: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon