December 1, 2013 – Wine: Shafer Merlot, a vertical flight inside my head

Recently, I experienced two vintages of Shafer Merlot during the same week.  The first was a half-bottle I brought to my mom’s to thank her for making the Thanksgiving pies from scratch (crust and all).  For that tasting, I opened the 2008 vintage.  Then, tonight I decided to open a half-bottle of the 2007 vintage.  The differences were remarkable and a little surprising.


One would expect that the older of these two wines would be the smoother with less fruit presence than the younger.  But, the vintage comes into play here too, and the 2008 red wines from Napa Valley have all been smoother and better balanced (and more elegant).  By contrast, the 2007 vintage features beautiful fruit more prominently.  These attributes held true for these two Shafer Merlots as well.  The 2007 offered up beautiful, vintage-typical fruits including blackberry and blueberry, but was a little disjointed and rough along the edges, begging for more time in the cellar.  By contrast, the 2008 was better balanced, silky smooth, and the fruits somewhat more restrained.  Of course the real testament to the 2008 was the way that my mom powered through six ounces of it in less than 50 minutes.  The 2008 really was that good, but I have faith in the 2007’s for next year.