Shafer One Point Five Napa Valley California Red Blend Wine

Shafer traces its own beginning to 1972, when, by the winery's account, John Shafer bought the property in Napa Valley and, in 1978, put out the winery's first Cabernet Sauvignon. That history belongs to the winery and not to any single bottling, and the grape behind this One Point Five bottling turns out to be more certain than our own listing name suggests: Shafer's own page for the current vintage names it a Cabernet Sauvignon, not literally the red blend our record calls it, built mostly from that grape with a small share of other red varieties folded in. The region guide we follow puts Napa Valley at only about thirty miles end to end, changing sharply from valley floor to hillside to mountain sites. So the wider name marks the origin, while a smaller area or a single vineyard would place it more closely. By that same guide, the valley has held federal recognition as an American Viticultural Area since 1981, with seventeen smaller such areas now within its boundary.

We do not have a shopper rating for this wine. In our September 2026 checks, the price across the stores we looked at ranged from $129.99 to $186.49.

Shafer's own page for the current 2023 vintage lists a blend of 96 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with small shares of Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec, given 18 months in new French oak and finishing at 15.3 percent alcohol. The producer also explains where the wine's name comes from: John and Doug Shafer, father and son, always described their working partnership as a "generation and a half" rather than a typical handoff between generations, and the winery coined One Point Five from that phrase, the producer's own account. The winemaker's tasting note calls the finished wine "complex, expressive, and lush," citing blackberry, raspberry and black licorice alongside baking spice and dark chocolate, the winemaker's words.

Shafer also publishes a public account of three decades of estate practice: sheep and cover crops standing in for herbicide, a 30-acre pond that stores winter rain for summer irrigation, and solar panels installed in 2004. Outside the winery's own pages, two independent critics have reviewed the wine, Jeb Dunnuck citing "pure, layered, silky" character and James Suckling's Jim Gordon calling it "a well-made and classy wine with plenty to offer," their words.

Our call: a strong choice for a shopper who wants Shafer's full story on paper, a confirmed blend and oak schedule, a family history behind the name, and two outside critics on record besides. Pass if a shopper crowd is what settles it for you; no shopper rating has reached our record, so professional critics and the producer's own account are what stand behind the price at this level.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.