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One of the perfect wines from Shafer is the 2007 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select. Think it over – in the first decade of the 21st century, Shafer scored three perfect scores and two 99s – that’s about as high a praise as I can give any producer in the world. Opaque purple in color, the 2007 has a stunning nose of sweet crème de cassis, black cherries, licorice, and toasty oak, a multilayered, full-throttle personality, and a texture that builds and builds. Great purity, fabulous fruit intensity and a richness without heaviness characterize this massive, prodigious effort from Shafer. It’s still very young, despite this vintage, which seems to be maturing precociously. I don’t believe this wine will hit its stride for at least another 5-10 years and drink well for at least 2-3 decades.Robert Parker | 100 RPThis won’t be out until next year and will mark 25 years of Hillside Select. Nice aromas of mint, mineral, dark fruits, and delicious currants. Full bodied, with a soft beginning that just builds and builds. This is muscular and toned, very impressive. Save your money to get plenty of this. Thought provoking wine. Don’t drink this for four or five years. 15+24+24+34. Find the wineJames Suckling | 97 JSIn keeping with the voluptuous approachability of the 2007 vintage, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is simply fabulous now for its flood of the ripest, sweetest blackberrries, cherries, cassis and chocolate imaginable. Especially noble is the tannin structure, firm and soft, dry and sweet, a combination of opposites. The depth is vast, and the spicy finish goes on for a long time, suggesting the wine’s concentration. Simply a joy to drink, it should develop over many years, but you might want to err on the side of youthfulness and open it by 2015.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WE(25th anniversary bottling): Good full ruby. Captivating aromas of cassis, blackberry and violet show an almost liqueur-like ripeness. Then rich, sweet, highly concentrated and large-scaled, with compelling flavors of dark berries, brown spices and sexy oak complicated by powerful soil tones. This drenches the mouth with flavor, with the wine’s tannins melting into its powerful fruit. Showing spectacularly today but this will evolve for decades. The hillside behind the house and winery makes up the core of this blend. (Incidentally, the very long 2006 showed a spectacular nose in March but is in a rather closed, tough stage right now and should be held for at least another five years).Vinous Media | 96 VMThe ruby-black, unctuously-textured 2007 Hillside Select is a large-scaled wine, even by the standards of this extravagant cuvée. It bursts from the glass with ripe aromas of kirsch, cassis, blueberries, charcoal and subtle woodsmoke. On the palate the acids are fresh, and the wine’s vast volume is nicely balanced out by mid-palate depth. This seems to bear a close kinship to the Rubenesque 2002 vintage, and is a real success in that paradigm. Drinking Window 2017 - 2025Decanter | 94 DECImpressive for the density, complexity, focus and concentration, this hits the right notes, unveiling tiers of dusty berry, mocha, herb, cedar and anise flavors. Though the tannins flex their muscles, the flavors flow freely.—Blind 1997/2007 California Cabernet retrospective (January 2017). Drink now through 2025. 2,500 cases made.Wine Spectator | 92 WSLusty richness drives this vintage of Hillside Select, from vines John and Doug Shafer planted in the 1970s on a series of knolls tucked under the Stag’s Leap escarpment. It has the site’s trademark tannins, as soft and savory as a bittersweet chocolate cake. The dark cherry-scented fruit is hidden behind the oak and the tannin for now, needing a decade to show its detail. For the cellar.Wine & Spirits | 92 W&S

This is extremely pretty, certainly at a good moment for opening, with floral, raspberry and brambled fruit notes and a touch of liquorice. It’s a little more evolved than the Domaine de Chevalier 2007 that I also tasted this week, but is full of charm and displays a lovely elegance and balance. This is very clearly a vintage that should be considered for drinking right now, offering opportunities to open some of Bordeaux’s biggest names at 10 years old and enjoying really pleasurable wines - but they need to be drunk soon to capitalise on this. The blend is completed with 1% Petit Verdot.Decanter | 92 DECSolid core of fruit here for the vintage. Slightly better than I remember with hints of chocolate, sweet tobacco, and currants on the nose and palate that follow through to a full body and a velvety textured finish. Drink now.James Suckling | 92 JSTasted at BI Wine & Spirits’ 10-Years-On tasting, the 2007 Smith-Haut-Lafitte has a delightful bouquet of cedar-tinged red berry fruit mixed with cloves and Chinese five-spice, all well defined and quite Saint Julien-like in style. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannin, hints of sandalwood and truffle infusing the decayed red fruit but with plenty of substance and freshness on the finish. I reckon after a decade, this Pessac-Leognan is à point and should be consumed now and over the next 8-10 years. Tasted February 2017.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RPBright, medium ruby-red. Very expressive aromas of plum, tobacco, smoked meat and sexy oak. Broad, sweet and sexy, with a vein of acidity giving the wine clarity and a note of woodsmoke contributing early appeal. Finishes long, with mounting tannins. A noteworthy success for the year.Vinous Media | 91 VMA smooth, polished wine, with acidity, sweet fruit and a range of dusty tannins, with acidity. This is an accomplished, delicious wine that is developing fast, and seems only for medium-term aging. Wine Enthusiast | 90 WEThe 2007 Smith Haut-Lafitte Rouge is a bit too new oaky for its own good, and is not anywhere near as successful as the really lovely 2006. This is a very nice wine that is simply struggling a bit under its generous percentage of new wood. The nose offers up a fine blend of black cherries, cassis, tobacco smoke, herbs, lovely soil tones and plenty of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is medium-full and shows a good core of fruit, with fine length and focus, but with its oak tannin just sticking out a bit uncovered on the finish. Perhaps there is enough stuffing here to eventually integrate the wood, but the wine would have been so good with half or a third as much new oak as it received in 2007. If it eventually integrates its wood a bit better, look for the wine to place towards the upper range of its score- if not, the lower range may be just a tad generous. Perhaps next time we could just donate a few dozen barrels to our less fortunate neighbors when the crop looks to be short? (Drink between 2014 - 2030)John Gilman | 84-97 JG

(Taylor-Fladgate) The 2007 Taylor-Fladgate is a beautiful synthesis of the inherent power of Taylors and uncompromising beauty of the 2007 vintage, and the combination is stunning. The refined, youthful and very complex nose offers up scents of cassis, black cherries, pepper, gentle tarry notes, woodsmoke, anise, soil and cedar. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and very light on its feet for a young Taylors, with great elegance and intensity on the attack, ripe, seamless tannins, and a huge spine of acidity that adds vibrancy to the fruit, purity to the soil expression and laser-like focus on the impeccable, long finish. This is a big boy that dances on the palate right from the outset, and is a remarkably stunning young bottle of Port. (Drink between 2035-2135).John Gilman | 97+ JGThis is a giant of a wine lurking behind fresh flowers and ripe fruit. Starts off in a friendly way, then takes hold of the palate, with intense blueberry and blackberry fruit and chewy yet fine tannins. Mouthpuckering, but impressively complex and long. Really kicks in on the finish. The best Taylor since 1994. Best after 2020.Wine Spectator | 96 WSEnticing violet and black currant aromas are followed by ripe plum and spice flavors. Maybe this isn’t the most powerful Taylor Fladgate vintage ever, but it is balanced, opulent, beautifully made, the tannins fine, layered, with exquisite final acidity.Wine Enthusiast | 95 WEAt its best, this wine is a vibrant, huge young Porto knocking out all the others with its delicious power-a Master of the Universe wine. It’s a blast of schist, cherry, raspberry, pomegranate and black licorice, all held in a supple grip that slides down the throat just as slowly as the wine’s color slides down the side of the glass. At this stage, the score shows some restraint, the wine having gone into a funk after a day of air and becoming reduced and difficult, only to rebound the following day. Still, this demonstrates the potential to be one of the greatest Port wines David Guimaraens has made, coming from a balanced year with beauty rather than aggression in the tannin. It will be fascinating to compare this to the 2003 as the wines age over the next 50 years.Wine & Spirits | 95 W&SThe Taylor’s 2007 is in a rather odd phase at the moment, its sweet, marzipan-tinged bouquet tending to dominate the ripe black fruit. The palate is much more controlled, with very fine tannins, supremely well-judged acidity and a very elegant, composed finish that has more purity and poise than the Fonseca. I would give bottles another decade to allow the aromatics to calm down. Tasted May 2013.Robert Parker Neal Martin | 94+ RP-NMBright, deep ruby. Superripe but youthfully clenched aromas of kirsch, blueberry, black licorice, smoke and minerals. Densely packed, suave and thick; has the texture of liquid velvet but urgent minerality gives it outstanding energy and a light touch. Best today on the slow-building, firmly tannic, spicy, palate-staining finish, which shows more grip and thrust than the Vargellas. This gained in complexity and definition for upwards of 72 hours in the recorked bottle. The Vargellas is an outstanding site expression while this is a great blend-and likely to enjoy a slower evolution in bottle. As usual, this should be among the longest-lived wines of the vintage.Vinous Media | 94+ VM

The Cabernet Sauvignon from the Aida Vineyard is becoming one of the most exceptional northern Napa Valley Cabernets, with a production ranging between 600-700 cases. An exquisite wine in the making is the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Aida Vineyard. A blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, it exhibits an inky purple color in addition to a beautiful nose of graphite, creme de cassis, melted licorice, charcoal, and melted asphalt, terrific stuffing, silky tannins, a noble sweetness that comes from the purity and ripeness of the fruit, and a 45+ second finish. This fabulous Cabernet should drink well for 20-25 years.Robert Parker | 95-98 RP(14.8% alcohol): Bright medium ruby. Truffley, musky scents of black raspberry, tobacco leaf, smoke, gravel, peppery herbs and licorice. Suave and surprisingly sweeet, conveying a gamey, truffley aspect to its dark berry and plum flavors. Nicely concentrated, fine-grained wine with a slightly roasted fruit element, a cooler medicinal quality, and substantial dusty tannins.Vinous Media | 91 VM