2004 Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select Stags Leap District

No wine has outranked Shafer Hillside Select over the last twenty-five years. There are those who say that the wine is too big, too direct, too heavy, cannot possibly age and typifies all that is wrong with California Cabernet Sauvignon today. We really have only one answer to that-please read our retrospective tasting of this wine covering 1978 to the present. The proof is in the glass, and we expect this current vintage to perform as well for the next two decades as it mates have done. It is deep, bold, almost heavy and heady wine, but it is layered, full of fruit and has the underlying structure to improve.

Good full medium ruby. Roasted, liqueur-like nose displays the warmth of the vintage. Massive, broad and very ripe but less delineated and taut than the 2003. Intensely flavored but doesn't yet come alive. The reticent flavors of blackcurrant and mint come across as rather disjointed today. Finishes with somewhat aggressive tannins. Slated for bottling in May, this was in an awkward stage at the time of my tasting.