Shafer Relentless 2014
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Winemaker Notes
Blend: 89% Syrah, 11% Petite Sirah
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Checking in as a blend of 89% Syrah and 11% Petit Sirah, the 2014 Syrah Relentless is a killer bottle of wine that offers decadent notes of blackcurrants, barbecued meats, seaweed wrapper, lavender, exotic pepper, and liquid smoke. This is a rich, unctuous Rhône inspired blend that packs serious amounts of fruit and richness, yet the elegant, forward style of the vintage keeps it silky, polished and incredibly drinkable. While I haven't had every vintage of this cuvee (it was first made in 1999), my money is on this being up with the top handful of vintages. It's a blockbuster today (if you’re oak adverse, give bottles 2-3 years) but will keep for two decades.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Relentless, made up of 89% Syrah and 11% Petite Sirah, is deep garnet-purple with a pronounced nose of black plums, blackberries and black cherries with touches of fragrant earth, black pepper and Indian spices plus a waft of lavender. Very big, full-bodied, opulent and laden with vibrant black fruits and spicy layers, it has firm, rounded tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and peppery.
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Tasting Panel
Dark ruby color with smokey nose; dense and full-flavored with ripe blackberry fruit; spicey with a long finish. 89% Syrah and 11% Petite Syrah from a vineyard site located in the foothills of the Vaca Mountains south of the Stags Leap District.
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Wine Spectator
Well-built and quite extracted, with tightly wound blackberry, crushed stone and smoky anise notes that build momentum toward big tannins. Needs time. Syrah and Petite Sirah. Best from 2019 through 2028.
Other Vintages
2019-
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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.
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.