Each week I pick out one wine to highlight as my wine of the week. This wine may be an outstanding wine, a great value or just something very interesting.
Overview
One Point Five takes its name from the term “a generation and a half,” coined by John and Doug Shafer to describe their long father-and-son partnership. Since 1983 this family team has worked side by side to manage their Stags Leap District winery.
The Winery
Shafer Vineyards traces its beginnings to 1972 when John Shafer left a 23-year career in the publishing industry and, with his family, moved to the Napa Valley to pursue a second career in wine. After purchasing a 210-acre estate in Napa Valley’s Stags Leap District, the Shafer family faced the arduous task of replanting the existing vineyards, which dated to the 1920s, and terracing the steep and rocky hillsides, eventually expanding vineyard acreage to its current 50 acres.
Evolving from grape growers to vintners, the Shafers crushed their first Cabernet grapes in 1978 and began construction on their winery a year later.
The first Shafer Cabernet became a benchmark, winning the acclaimed San Francisco Vintners Club taste-off upon release and, over a decade later taking first place in an international blind tasting held in Germany, where it outranked such wines as Chateau Margaux, Chateau Latour and Chateau Palmer.
Doug Shafer became winemaker in 1983 after graduating from the University of California at Davis with a degree in enology and viticulture. A year later Elias Fernandez joined the winery as assistant winemaker. Together Doug and Elias have worked closely to forge the Shafer style of quality, consistency and elegance.
New vineyards have been added over the years, with acreage acquired in the Oak Knoll, Stags Leap and Carneros districts, bringing the total Shafer vineyard acreage to over 200 acres. Winery facilities have been expanded and extensive caves carved into the hillside for aging wine.
In 1994, Elias was appointed winemaker, and Doug took over the reins as president when John became chairman of the board.
From a modest beginning of 1,000 cases in 1978, the winery has grown steadily until reaching its present size of 32,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Syrah. Today Shafer wines are available in major markets nationwide and in many foreign markets.
Much more information on the winery and its history is available on their website by clicking here. I’d also recommend checking out the recipes from Annette Shafer by clicking here.
2010 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five – $54.99
This vintage of wine is sold out at the winery, but I see several online retailers with it for around $70.
The suggested price for the current release of this wine, the 2011 vintage, is $75, and again I see several retailers with it available for around $70.
Based on these prices, you should be able to easily see why I had to grab a few bottles of this wine when the local wine store had it on sale.
While this wine is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon every vintage, the breakdown of the “supporting” grapes change every vintage. In this vintage 1% Petit Verdot was added to the Cabernet. The grapes for this wine come predominately from two Stags Leap District sites, Shafer’s hillside estate vineyard and the “Borderline” vineyard located about two miles south of the winery.
The alcohol is 15.3% by volume and the bottle is sealed with a natural cork.
My Tasting Note
The wine is a nice, deep ruby color. The stunning nose has cassis, tobacco, minerals, dark chocolate, cedar, eucalyptus, violets and warm baking spices. This has medium to full body, solid tannins and very good acidity. On the palate the rich fruit and solid savory elements merge with the chewy tannins and acidity to yield a mouth full of pleasure. This is very young but stunning with some air. Is there a better bargain out there for a top end Napa Cabernet? I’m glad I grabbed several for this price at the local store. (94 pts)
2010 Shafer Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five
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While you’re there, check out Underground Cellar unique wine selling model. You can “buy” a lower cost wine and get upgraded to a much more expensive bottle for free. For example, one of their current offers is $42 for a 2008 Balboa Brioso. If you buy this wine, you could get “upgraded” to 2007 Stonestreet Monument Ridge Cabernet ($60 value), 2009 Caymus Napa Valley Cabernet ($85 value), 2007 Anderson’s Conn Valley Reserve Cabernet ($130 value), 1994 Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon ($150 value), or even a 1985 BR Cohn Cabernet Sauvignon Olive Hill (Helen Turley) with a value of $220.
The shipping is also incredible, at 6 bottles, shipping cost $5! Buy 6 more bottles and ship for FREE.
Connect with me
You can follow me on Twitter for more wine info, potential food pairings, and an occasional recipe or two. Be warned, I’m also a sports fan and there are occasional Pittsburgh Penguins, Steelers, and Pirates tweets. I attended the University of South Carolina, so during football season, there will also be some Gamecock posts.
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Cheers!
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Cliff’s Wine Picks mentions or other posts
Here are posts, newsletters, blogs or other articles that either mention this site or that I have written:
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http://www.snooth.com/articles/what-ys-a-great-grenache-5209/
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http://www.snooth.com/articles/spring-time-is-for-pairing/
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Balzac Communications & Marketing – News & Views
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WHAT WE’VE BEEN DRINKING – News and Reviews from Around the Blogosphere
http://www.snooth.com/articles/what-we-yve-been-drinking/?viewall=1#ixzz2vy4idw7a
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WINES THAT RANG OUR BELL IN FEBRUARY 2014 – Our Favorite Wine Writers Share Their Picks
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Crave Local
California Wine Reviews: Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Family Vineyard
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Sample Boutique Wines at Affordable Prices with Tastingroom.com
Remember to support your local wine store!
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Notes – I use the “official” Cellar Tracker name for the wines. I use Cellar Tracker to help manage and organize my cellar. I highly recommend checking it out at www.cellartracker.com. Loading you existing cellar is a lot less intimidating than it would first appear. There is a good chance 99% of your wine is already in the system, so you generally only need to enter part of the wine’s name and the system will find it for you.
Prices noted are the prices I paid at the time of purchase. I don’t shop around to find the best prices, but my local store is usually VERY competitive. I generally get case discounts, and since I work there part time, I get a 5% discount. Wines purchased direct from a winery do not include any shipping charges. None of the prices include the sales tax.
All wines that were sent to me free of charge to sample will be noted and I will show suggested prices when available.
Cheers!
March 27, 2014
Cliff
Cliff's Wine Picks 