Shafer is one of Napa Valley’s most celebrated and beloved wineries — a family estate in the Stags Leap District that has been producing some of California’s finest wines for over four decades. Their Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon is the stuff of legend. But TD-9 is the wine that shows a different, more playful side of Shafer’s genius: a Bordeaux-inspired blend named after the TD-9 bulldozer that John Shafer used to carve the winery’s original terraced vineyards out of the Stags Leap hillside in the 1970s. It is a wine with history in its name and California sunshine in its soul. The blend — Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, and Petit Verdot — is a masterclass in Napa winemaking: each variety contributing something essential, the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The 2017 is a rich, vibrant, and multi-layered wine that eight years in bottle have brought to a point of beautiful, complex maturity. The nose is deeply inviting — blackcurrant, plum, and black cherry, with subtle notes of liquorice, violets, and a lovely earthy depth that speaks of the Stags Leap terroir. On the palate it is seriously charming and supremely satisfying: generous and full-bodied, with a silky, seamless texture, beautifully integrated tannins, and a long, layered finish that lingers with real class and distinction. California Bordeaux at its most compelling — and a wine that tells the story of one of Napa’s great families with every sip. At £94.99, it is outstanding value for a Shafer of this age and quality.