Winemaker Notes
Shafer winemaker, Elias Fernandez, says of the 2004 One Point Five Cabernet, "These are aromas and flavors that speak of home to me – pure Stags Leap District. The first thing I get are aromas of black, chewy fruit, cedar, chocolate, and dried herbs, followed by rich, juicy flavors of blackberry, smoke, dark chocolate, herbs, and tobacco, with a nice long finish. The tannins are ripe and supple, bringing back memories of the 1992 vintage."
"The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five is a combination of 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Petit Verdot. It reveals all the elegance and classicism one expects from the Stags Leap District along with beautifully sweet cherry and black currant fruit, flower, spice box, and mineral-like notes. Medium-bodied and pure with terrific intensity and a degree of opulence characteristic of the vintage, it can be consumed over the next 10-12 years."
-The Wine Advocate
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
As of this vintage, Shafer has done away with their Napa Valley Cabernet bottling and replaced it with this proprietarily named 100% Cab. It’s a junior version of Hillside Select, from different vineyards and not as oaky. But it's nearly as massive in black currants, cherries and carob bean, a dry wine that never loses elegance. Needs a year or so to become less tight and more expressive.
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Wine Spectator
Intense and concentrated, with vivid currant and blackberry flavors that are shaded by light toasty oak and mocha coffee scents. Smooth-textured, with ripe, fine-grained tannins, ending with a long, complex aftertaste.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The newest baby in the Shafer portfolio is their Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap that they call One Point Five. The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five is a quintessential example of Stags Leap. Elegant berry fruit intermixed with spring flowers, graphite, and crushed rock is followed by a medium-bodied wine with beautifully pure black cherry and currant fruit as well as wonderfully fresh acidity and purity.
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Wine & Spirits
This is the first release of One Point Five, a refernce to what Doug Shafer calls the "generation and a half" partnership his dad and he have had in their winery. It's a cabernet sauvignon sourced primarily from Shafer's Hillside Estate Vineyard and the 25-acre Borderline Vineyard, with a bit of fruit from Ridgeback Vineyard as well, and it replaces the Napa Valley Cabernet, which was sourced from vineyards throughout the valley. With One Point Five, there's no need to be patient, no need to cellar it: Just open it up and pour out a luscious red, big in all ways and balanced in its huge, dense style. The flavors run black, from black raspberry to espresso roast coffee to dark tobacco. A rich pleasure with a New York strip steak.
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.