In 1974, eighteen-year-old Doug Shafer and his younger brother spent endless hours after school clearing rocks from a seven-acre parcel of the Napa property their father had bought with an eye to planting Cabernet Sauvignon. They lugged the rocks off the hill in the heat of the valley sun. “By hand. By the thousands.” Thirty-two years later, in September 2006, Shafer Vineyards released the 2002 Hillside Select Cabernet, a vintage that Robert Parker had awarded a perfect 100 points. Doug Shafer’s well focused memoir, written with Andy Demsky, is the rocky-hillside-to-world-renowned-Napa-wine story of father John Shafer, son Doug and winemaker Elias Fernandez. The Shafer story is a tale of vision, luck, daring and modesty. There were plenty of mistakes along the way. There was the decision to plant Sangiovese in the hope that the varietal would be the next big thing. There was the misguided cold soaking of the 1985 [...]