Shafer Vineyards -John and Doug Shafer learned the wine business together over the span of ‘a generation-and-a-half’ Long-time family partnership spawns the name for One Point Five On a wet, cold day in January 1983, Doug Shafer entered the family winery for the first time as winemaker. Since the age of 17, when his family had purchased the rugged, hillside vineyard site in an area of Napa Valley locally dubbed Stags Leap, Doug had worked in the vineyards off and on. In the early days it was the tough labor of replanting, such as hauling out rocks and pounding trellis stakes. Doug also worked summers at several local wineries gaining experience in cellar basics. While Doug went on to U.C. Davis to earn a degree in viticulture, John Shafer, his father, made his first Cabernet Sauvignon and began building a winery. After graduation, Doug worked as assistant winemaker at Lakespring Winery, a position he characterizes as a “glorified cellar rat.” Still, his level of experience hardly guaranteed success in this next step. And he knew it. “On that first day as winemaker, Dad and I walked through the cellar and he showed me all the 1982 Cabernet still in tanks, separated by the various small vineyard blocks here on the property,” says Doug. “I had turned my dad down twice before when he’d asked me to take over the winemaking responsibilities. And as I looked at all those tanks I seriously wondered why I’d finally said yes. A lot was riding on this. I was petrified.” Family Commitment When Doug and John started working together, the winery’s future was still a big unknown. John Shafer’s first wine, 1,000 cases of 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon, had been on the market less than two years. Even though it would go on to win accolades from critics and consumers, it took a lot of time on the road to get the wine on store shelves and on restaurant lists. “As a small family business we were in the fingers-crossed stage where you work as hard as you can and try to hold all the pieces together,” says Doug. For the father-and-son team it was the start of a working relationship that has lasted nearly 25 years. “The family business story you hear most often is the second-generation tale, where a parent hands an established, profitable business over to a son or daughter,” says John Shafer. “Things happened a little differently here and we call our story a-generation-and-a-half since Doug and I have worked so closely for so long.” The name One Point Five, playing off the generation-and-a-half idea, is meant to tell the story of this family relationship that has formed Shafer Vineyards. “I suspect there are many stories like ours that you don’t hear about often because they aren’t as juicy as the stories of family infighting,” says John. “We see this wine as speaking to commitments that stand the test of time.” Cabernet Commitment When the Shafer family purchased their property in 1972, the site included 30 acres of vineyard last planted in 1922. The grapes included unknowns such as Golden Chasselas, Malvoisie, and Sauvignon Vert and the vines were decades past their prime. The decision to plant Cabernet Sauvignon was not easy or obvious. “A grower who is now revered, Nathan Fay, had been the first of our neighbors to plant Cabernet but it was not seen at the time as the clear winner for the rest of us,” says John. After consulting with several longtime growers in the area, the Shafer family chose to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and it was from these vines, cultivated on the hillsides around the winery, that John Shafer made his 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon. A couple of months into his new job, in spring of 1983, Doug had tasted through all the lots of Cabernet from the previous year’s harvest and noticed something out-of-the-ordinary about the wine from a hillside block called Sunspot. “I told Dad I felt that lot was special and we should bottle it separately,” says Doug. “He tasted the wine and agreed.” That was the start of two bottlings of Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. The first year the lot from Sunspot was called Reserve Cabernet and the following year was renamed Hillside Select. The fruit came to be sourced from several of the hillside vineyard blocks including John’s Folly and Venado Ilegal. The other bottling was called simply Cabernet Sauvignon and labeled as grown and produced in the “Stags Leap growing area.” The AVA called Stags Leap District would not officially exist until 1989 (thanks to a four-year effort led by John and a handful of neighbors). Stags Leap Commitment Both Shafer Cabernets continued to come from within the 1300 acres of Stags Leap District. Hillside Select originated from hillside vineyard blocks near the winery and the Stags Leap District Cab was sourced from Shafer’s property and from growers nearby. “By 1996 we had to deal with two divergent trends. We were making more of the Stags Leap District Cabernet and the people who we were buying fruit from locally were starting to make their own wine and wanted to keep their grapes,” says Doug. To use the name Stags Leap District on the label, 85 percent of the wine in the bottle had to come from within the appellation. In order to meet demand, in 1996, Doug and winemaker Elias Fernandez purchased Cabernet fruit from as far north as Calistoga and as far south as Oak Knoll. It was the winery’s first non-Stags Leap Cabernet. “We rolled with the change and thought it would be fun to explore the idea of creating a Cabernet that would be a snapshot of what the vintage had produced Napa Valley-wide,” says Doug. Ultimately though, their hearts remained with Stags Leap District. In 1999 Shafer made good on that commitment and purchased the last sizeable parcel of vineyard land available within the district. Shafer named this 25-acre site “Borderline,” as it lies along the southern border of the District. Preparing “Borderline” “Acquiring the Borderline vineyard was the classic challenge-opportunity scenario,” says Doug. “On the good-news side was the chance to cultivate fruit we now control in Stags Leap District. The challenge was how to work with a property that was flat and broad with deep soils and yet cultivate vines that produce the sort of concentrated, small-berried fruit that we like so much from our hillside site here at the winery.” The vineyard team prepared Borderline first by embedding an extensive drainage system that would allow for quick runoff and keep soils dry, holding the vigor of the vines in check. Shafer also used low-vigor rootstocks and planted the site using close spacing so that the vines would compete with each other for moisture and soil nutrients. “We also manage the site with the help of sustainable farming methods,” Doug says. “Each year we plant a thick mix of cover crops – bell beans, clover, oats and the like. These cover crops provide further competition with the vines for water and nutrients, pushing them toward the edge of survival, which produces small berries and rich flavors.” The Cabernet Sauvignon being introduced as One Point Five is sourced primarily from two Stags Leap District sites – the hillside estate vineyards surrounding the Shafer winery and the Borderline vineyard, which lies a couple miles south of the winery. A small amount of fruit comes from Shafer’s Ridgeback vineyard that is situated within shouting distance of Stags Leap District’s southern border. “The release of 2004 One Point Five is exciting for us on a lot of levels,” says John Shafer. “From a winemaking standpoint it’s a return to our roots – we think it’s hard to do better than a Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. In terms of ensuring quality, it’s a boon to control our fruit source. And the name of the wine is important for us. A few years ago we realized that a new generation of consumers weren’t certain if we were still a family winery anymore – so many from the old days have become brand names in large corporate portfolios. We want to make the message clear – Doug and I are here every day, involved in every aspect of the winery, living our generation-and-a-half story.”

John and Doug Shafer learned the wine business together
over the span of ‘a generation-and-a-half’

Long-time family partnership spawns the name for One Point Five

On a wet, cold day in January 1983, Doug Shafer entered the family winery for the first time as winemaker. Since the age of 17, when his family had purchased the rugged, hillside vineyard site in an area of Napa Valley locally dubbed Stags Leap, Doug had worked in the vineyards off and on. In the early days it was the tough labor of replanting, such as hauling out rocks and pounding trellis stakes. Doug also worked summers at several local wineries gaining experience in cellar basics.

While Doug went on to U.C. Davis to earn a degree in viticulture, John Shafer, his father, made his first Cabernet Sauvignon and began building a winery.

After graduation, Doug worked as assistant winemaker at Lakespring Winery, a position he characterizes as a “glorified cellar rat.”

Still, his level of experience hardly guaranteed success in this next step. And he knew it.

“On that first day as winemaker, Dad and I walked through the cellar and he showed me all the 1982 Cabernet still in tanks, separated by the various small vineyard blocks here on the property,” says Doug. “I had turned my dad down twice before when he’d asked me to take over the winemaking responsibilities. And as I looked at all those tanks I seriously wondered why I’d finally said yes. A lot was riding on this. I was petrified.”

Family Commitment
When Doug and John started working together, the winery’s future was still a big unknown. John Shafer’s first wine, 1,000 cases of 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon, had been on the market less than two years. Even though it would go on to win accolades from critics and consumers, it took a lot of time on the road to get the wine on store shelves and on restaurant lists.

“As a small family business we were in the fingers-crossed stage where you work as hard as you can and try to hold all the pieces together,” says Doug.

For the father-and-son team it was the start of a working relationship that has lasted nearly 25 years.

“The family business story you hear most often is the second-generation tale, where a parent hands an established, profitable business over to a son or daughter,” says John Shafer. “Things happened a little differently here and we call our story a-generation-and-a-half since Doug and I have worked so closely for so long.”

The name One Point Five, playing off the generation-and-a-half idea, is meant to tell the story of this family relationship that has formed Shafer Vineyards.

“I suspect there are many stories like ours that you don’t hear about often because they aren’t as juicy as the stories of family infighting,” says John. “We see this wine as speaking to commitments that stand the test of time.”

Cabernet Commitment
When the Shafer family purchased their property in 1972, the site included 30 acres of vineyard last planted in 1922. The grapes included unknowns such as Golden Chasselas, Malvoisie, and Sauvignon Vert and the vines were decades past their prime.

The decision to plant Cabernet Sauvignon was not easy or obvious.

“A grower who is now revered, Nathan Fay, had been the first of our neighbors to plant Cabernet but it was not seen at the time as the clear winner for the rest of us,” says John.

After consulting with several longtime growers in the area, the Shafer family chose to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and it was from these vines, cultivated on the hillsides around the winery, that John Shafer made his 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon.

A couple of months into his new job, in spring of 1983, Doug had tasted through all the lots of Cabernet from the previous year’s harvest and noticed something out-of-the-ordinary about the wine from a hillside block called Sunspot.

“I told Dad I felt that lot was special and we should bottle it separately,” says Doug. “He tasted the wine and agreed.”

That was the start of two bottlings of Shafer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. The first year the lot from Sunspot was called Reserve Cabernet and the following year was renamed Hillside Select. The fruit came to be sourced from several of the hillside vineyard blocks including John’s Folly and Venado Ilegal.

The other bottling was called simply Cabernet Sauvignon and labeled as grown and produced in the “Stags Leap growing area.”

The AVA called Stags Leap District would not officially exist until 1989 (thanks to a four-year effort led by John and a handful of neighbors).

Stags Leap Commitment
Both Shafer Cabernets continued to come from within the 1300 acres of Stags Leap District. Hillside Select originated from hillside vineyard blocks near the winery and the Stags Leap District Cab was sourced from Shafer’s property and from growers nearby.

“By 1996 we had to deal with two divergent trends. We were making more of the Stags Leap District Cabernet and the people who we were buying fruit from locally were starting to make their own wine and wanted to keep their grapes,” says Doug.

To use the name Stags Leap District on the label, 85 percent of the wine in the bottle had to come from within the appellation. In order to meet demand, in 1996, Doug and winemaker Elias Fernandez purchased Cabernet fruit from as far north as Calistoga and as far south as Oak Knoll. It was the winery’s first non-Stags Leap Cabernet.

“We rolled with the change and thought it would be fun to explore the idea of creating a Cabernet that would be a snapshot of what the vintage had produced Napa Valley-wide,” says Doug.

Ultimately though, their hearts remained with Stags Leap District. In 1999 Shafer made good on that commitment and purchased the last sizeable parcel of vineyard land available within the district.

Shafer named this 25-acre site “Borderline,” as it lies along the southern border of the District.

Preparing “Borderline”
“Acquiring the Borderline vineyard was the classic challenge-opportunity scenario,” says Doug. “On the good-news side was the chance to cultivate fruit we now control in Stags Leap District. The challenge was how to work with a property that was flat and broad with deep soils and yet cultivate vines that produce the sort of concentrated, small-berried fruit that we like so much from our hillside site here at the winery.”

The vineyard team prepared Borderline first by embedding an extensive drainage system that would allow for quick runoff and keep soils dry, holding the vigor of the vines in check. Shafer also used low-vigor rootstocks and planted the site using close spacing so that the vines would compete with each other for moisture and soil nutrients.

“We also manage the site with the help of sustainable farming methods,” Doug says. “Each year we plant a thick mix of cover crops – bell beans, clover, oats and the like. These cover crops provide further competition with the vines for water and nutrients, pushing them toward the edge of survival, which produces small berries and rich flavors.”

The Cabernet Sauvignon being introduced as One Point Five is sourced primarily from two Stags Leap District sites – the hillside estate vineyards surrounding the Shafer winery and the Borderline vineyard, which lies a couple miles south of the winery. A small amount of fruit comes from Shafer’s Ridgeback vineyard that is situated within shouting distance of Stags Leap District’s southern border.

“The release of 2004 One Point Five is exciting for us on a lot of levels,” says John Shafer. “From a winemaking standpoint it’s a return to our roots – we think it’s hard to do better than a Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. In terms of ensuring quality, it’s a boon to control our fruit source. And the name of the wine is important for us. A few years ago we realized that a new generation of consumers weren’t certain if we were still a family winery anymore – so many from the old days have become brand names in large corporate portfolios. We want to make the message clear – Doug and I are here every day, involved in every aspect of the winery, living our generation-and-a-half story.”