Shafer TD-9 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

Picture Napa Valley in summer: a dry, Mediterranean stretch of country where cool air off San Pablo Bay reaches the southern end, the afternoons turn warmer toward the north, and evening fog settles in to bring the overnight temperatures down. That is the ground behind this Cabernet Sauvignon, and the grape is where its story really starts.

Our grape research describes Cabernet Sauvignon as a red planted in many wine regions, one that often makes firmly built wines and shows up as well in red blends. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine, so the grape and the origin are what there is to go on.

For the taste itself, regional authorities reach for black currant, cherry and plum as common fruit references, and they note noticeable tannin along with possible spice from oak. How any single bottle lands is not fixed: ripeness, climate and winemaking can shape a Cabernet that is lean and herbal in style or broad and fruit-led. Shafer, for its part, says John Shafer bought the Napa Valley property in 1972 and put out the winery's first Cabernet Sauvignon in 1978, though that history speaks to the house rather than to this bottle.

In our September 2026 checks its price ranged from $99.99 to $128.99. The same wine did not carry the same price everywhere we looked that month, which is worth knowing before deciding where to buy it.

Shafer's own page for the current 2023 vintage gives the wine a name and a blend both. TD-9 celebrates John Shafer's first tractor, a 1950s International Harvester TD-9 he inherited with the Napa Valley property in 1973 and taught himself to drive as the winery got its start, the producer's own account. The blend runs 75 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot filling out the rest, given 18 months in new French oak, and finishing at 15.3 percent alcohol, higher than many table wines. The winemaker's tasting note describes "layers of blackberry, black plum, and spice, accented by... tobacco, toast, and savory herbs," and calls the tannins silky, the winemaker's words.

Two outside critics have reviewed the wine as well: Jeb Dunnuck praised its "beautifully balanced, layered" character, and James Suckling's Jim Gordon called it "a classic Napa Valley cabernet" with "vivid flavors of red and black cherries." The estate also publishes three decades of sustainability practice, among them grazing sheep and cover crops in place of herbicide, a rainwater pond for summer irrigation, and solar power running since 2004, shared across the winery's wines.

Our call: worth the price to a shopper who wants the paperwork to match the pour, a mostly Cabernet Sauvignon blend, 18 months in new French oak, and the family-tractor story behind the TD-9 name, all confirmed on the producer's own page and echoed by two outside critics. Pass if you buy on a shopper crowd's word; no rating has reached our record for this bottle, leaving the producer and the critics to carry it.

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