Winemaker Notes
From the landmark 2023 vintage, One Point Five is an exceptional expression of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at its peak. Layers of blackberry, raspberry, and black licorice unfold alongside notes of bay leaf, sage, cinnamon, clove, and dark chocolate. Complex, expressive, and lush, this wine captures the purity of vintage and varietal character, all wrapped in a structure of ripe tannins that offer evolving, profound beauty for decades.
Blend: 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petite Verdot, 1% Merlot, 1% Malbec
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Cassis, spring flowers, graphite, and subtle scorched earth notes, as well as some classic Pauillac-like lead pencil notes, all define the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five, a medium to full-bodied, pure, layered, silky barrel sample.
Barrel Sample: 94-96 -
Decanter
One Point Five is full of tension, offering red and black cherry fruit, dusty minerality, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Full-bodied and driven by fleshy cherry and spiced plum fruit, it’s balanced by velvety tannins that glide toward a fresh, mineral-rich finish.
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James Suckling
Generous and perfumed with aromas of blackberry confit, violets, licorice, cigar box and graphite. The palate is full-bodied with a densely packed mouthfeel and refined, polished tannins. A well-made and classy wine with plenty to offer.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Shafer's 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five might be an even better value than the winery's TD-9, despite coming in at a slightly higher price point. It's matured in new French oak for 18 months and boasts slightly cedary, toasty oak notes that frame the wine's black cherry and cassis fruit. It's full-bodied, big and bold—firmly in the Shafer style, despite the cool vintage. While not a Stags Leap District AVA wine, it offers a glimpse of that region's svelte, silky texture, being plush on the palate, long and elegant on the finish. Barrel sample: 92-94
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Vinous
The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five is stellar. Deep, pliant and resonant in the glass, the One Point Five has so much to offer. Dark plum, blackberry, menthol and espresso all build effortlessly in the glass. It’s a gorgeous bridge into the flagship Hillside Select.
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Wine Spectator
This is laden with warmed cassis and plum compote notes that are seamlessly woven with roasted vanilla, tobacco and black licorice. A twinge of walnut husk lends a touch of cut through the rather dense finish. Best from 2027 through 2039.
Shafer Vineyards has produced classic Napa Valley wines for more than 40 years.
Shafer’s wines, including its signature Cabernet Sauvignon, Hillside Select, are found in collectors’ cellars and on wine lists in top luxury hotels and restaurants throughout the world.
The vineyard and cellar teams, led by winemaker Elias Fernandez, cultivate more than 200 acres of Shafer-owned vineyards, sources for the winery's celebrated Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay, TD-9, One Point Five, Relentless, and Hillside Select.
The winery has a decades-long commitment to sustainability. Beginning in the 1980s Shafer embraced farming techniques that eliminate insecticides and herbicides, and carefully conserve water resources. In 2004 Shafer became the first winery in the U.S. to go 100% solar.
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.