Shafer Vineyards TD-9

TD-9 is a wine that celebrates the spirit of risk-taking and adventure within Shafer Vineyards, something which has been evident since day one. John Shafer went from riding morning commuter trains in Chicago to teaching himself to drive a TD-9 tractor in his newly owned Napa Valley vineyard, all in a matter of months. He’d never grown grapes or made wine in his life – thankfully, it turns out that he’s quite good at it!

Fast forward to 2015 and an early morning conversation between Doug Shafer (John’s son) and long-standing winemaker, Elias Fernandez, where they were discussing the Merlot and other fruit from a cluster of small Shafer vineyards just south of Stags Leap District. “You do realise that we could make a much better wine if we could make a red blend” suggested Elias – referring to the mix of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec fruit on the property. They slept on the idea and soon decided that if they could make a more profound wine, the way forward was clear.

As anticipated, it was indeed finer and more complex than what they were producing before, still retaining the joyous, plush, generous fruit that characterised their straight up Merlot. A gamble that paid off, the wine was named TD-9 as a nod to John’s old tractor, and his original gamble of starting up the winery.

A wine that has only one rule – to be as delicious as possible vintage after vintage – this is a blend of 56% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon and 21% Malbec. Aged for 20 months in new oak, it has sweet nose of blackberry, raspberry and black cherry jam. Medium-to full-bodied with firm tannins, it gets more savoury on the palate with black olive, graphite, spices and dried herbs. Broad, complex and flavoursome.