•
Get
the fact sheet on this wine
•
Learn more about the Hillside Select® Cabernet
Sauvignon story
•
Read reviews
•
Finding
Our Wines
2003 HILLSIDE SELECT®
The ’03 Vintage Offers a Bounty of Complex Flavor
Life is good for the grapes that grow on Shafer’s hillside vineyards. Every year the climate offers clockwork-like
consistency – day after day of morning chill and overcast, followed by brilliant sunlight and midday heat. Temperatures
cool off quickly as evening approaches thanks to a breeze from the northernmost reach of San Francisco Bay (located 18
miles to the south) that channels into our secluded box canyon.
This daily see-saw of chill and heat works beautifully to develop flavors and acidity within the fruit.
Even so, 2003, like every other year brought with it one or two surprises. The year started off with more rain than usual.
We responded by maintaining tight control on the fruit that we allowed to mature on the vine.
Our vineyard team made multiple passes through our hillside estate vineyard and cut away all fruit that appeared under-developed.
“Part of the reason Hillside Select is so consistent from year to year is that our vineyard team and our cellar
crew have seen it all. Nothing fazes them,” says Doug Shafer. “They roll with whatever Mother Nature throws
our way.”
The physical structure of the hillsides themselves also contributes to consistent quality. The rocky volcanic soil measures
only 18 to 22 inches deep and the immediate underlayer is weathered bedrock. The combination of the porous soil and the
slope itself ensures quick runoff, never allowing the vines to enjoy excess moisture.
Also, the crescent shape of the hillside creates vineyard blocks that face, southeast, southwest, and west, meaning that
throughout the season different parts of the vineyard experience different levels of sun exposure. This offers the winemaking
team many choices when selecting which vineyard blocks will go into that year’s Hillside Select.
In 2003 harvest started in mid-September at a quick pace and then the weather cooled, dropping sugars and acid levels
within the grapes. The vineyard team took a break of just over a week, realizing that the added hangtime was going to
result in even more lush, full flavors.
We experienced a late-season surge in temperatures and the vineyard team resumed harvest, bringing in loads of dark,
richly ripe fruit.
“From the start I’ve been very happy with our 2003 Hillside Select harvest,” says winemaker Elias Fernandez. “For
Hillside Select we only use fruit from selected vineyard blocks and then we narrow our choices even further in the cellar.”
2003 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon is released with a suggested California retail price of $200.
###
Shafer Vineyards is a 34,000 case winery in Napa Valley’s Stags Leap District managed by the father and son team
of John and Doug Shafer. The Shafer family owns and farms 200 acres of vineyards, sources for Shafer’s Cabernet
Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah.
