2019 Shafer Vineyards One Point Five Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley, USA (750 ml)

TASTING NOTES: 

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five is a gem of a wine that readers will love to have in their cellars. Sweet cassis, violets, and graphite define the bulk of the aromas, and it’s a classic Napa Valley Cabernet on the palate with its full-bodied richness, velvety tannins, and opulent yet balanced style. A blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, and the rest Malbec and Petit Verdot, raised 20 months in new barrels, it’s going to keep for a solid two decades. Best After 2022
- Jeb Dunnuck, 96 pts

Blackberries and blueberries with cherries, too. The palate is very polished and refined with fresh, velvety tannins that provide tension and verve. It’s long and vivid with polish and beauty. Drinkable now, but give it at least three or four years to soften. Better after 2026.
- James Suckling, 95 pts

A perennial powerhouse, this wine includes 12% Merlot, 3% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot. Tight, tannic and brawny in style, it offers dense layers of rich earth, dried herb, soy and leather, with unmistakable muscularity that wraps itself around lushly dark, baked fruit.
- Wine Enthusiast, 95 pts

Just released in February, this youthful blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 3% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot aged 20 months in new French oak. At 15.3% ABV, it’s well developed, with a satiny mouthfeel and a silky, elegant entry that speaks of chocolate and tilled soil. As it continues to romance the palate, hints of roasted coffee bean, blackberry, and slate emerge on tiptoe.
- Tasting Panel, 95 pts

Elias Fernandez focuses this wine on two estate vineyards, one at the base of the Stags Leap Escarpment, on hills surrounding the winery, plus the Borderline vineyard two miles south. His 2019 has a soil-driven scent, picking up on the rocky, volcanic scree that forms the base of these knolls. Yet, in the best tradition of Shafer cabernet, it follows a clean line, like a well-built rock wall, the wine’s fl avors infused with black-currant ripeness and blueberryskin darkness that keeps smoking up in the fi nish (the wine has consumed a substantial amount of new oak). This has the stamina to last for a decade or two.
- Wine & Spirits, 94 pts

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five is a blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 3% Malbec and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it delivers bright, vibrant notes of cassis, cedar, Marmite toast and black raspberries with hints of bay leaves and tilled earth in the background. The palate is full-bodied, rich and plush, featuring a lively backbone and a long finish that displays wonderful purity and precision.
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, 93 pts

Ripe and open, with a friendly gush of raspberry, plum and cherry compote flavors wrapped loosely with a red licorice hint. Shows a savory accent that keeps the finish honest. Drink now through 2029.
- Wine Spectator, 91 pts

WINEMAKER'S NOTE:

2019 One Point Five fills your glass with a generous, opulent Cabernet Sauvignon offering aromas and flavors of bright black cherry, red currant, cranberry, lavender, allspice, and crushed herbs. All this lush, vivid fruit is seamlessly brought together with ripe, cashmere-like tannins that promise years of beauty ahead with careful cellaring.

Blend: 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot, 3% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot