The alcohol is noticeable on the early palate. There’s a classic tarry nose, then blackcurrant coulis getting chewy as the palate works through. This has the charm of all the Hillside Selects, but the hot year (‘We couldn’t get the grapes off soon enough’) dumbs it down, and it finishes simpler than you’d expect, ‘the whole character shifting to black,’ as Shafer says, ‘with those notes of blackcurrant confection’.