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The quality of these singular, extraordinary offerings is world-class.  

Since this wine debuted in 1990, Harlan Estate has produced one of California 's most impressive Cabernet Sauvignons in each vintage of the nineties. The impressive mountainside vineyard is situated on the western side of Napa Valley , overlooking Martha's Vineyard . No compromises are made in producing this dazzling wine. Proprietor Bill Harlan, assisted by his winemaker, Bob Levy, and consulting oenologist, France 's Michel Rolland, have turned out a wine of exquisite richness and complexity. The wine offers the intensity one expects from a top California Cabernet-based wine, yet it incorporates a sense of grace, complexity, and elegance that clearly places it in the top echelon of California wines.

2004 BOND VECINA $375
96 RP
The 2004 Vecina shares an opaque ruby/purple color, smells of wet steel, crushed rocks, spring flowers, forest floor, and plenty of cedar and chocolatey black currant and blackberry notes. A huge, spicy, complex nose is followed by a wine of impressive ripeness, full-bodied power, and a multi-dimensional mouthfeel with huge amounts of glycerin, fruit, and thickness. This is a connoisseur’s treat, and despite the fruit-forward character of the vintage, this wine ideally needs 2-4 years of bottle age and should keep for 30-35+ years.

2004 BOND ST EDEN $400
97RP
The 2004 St. Eden seems to hit all the sweet spots on my palate. A wine of great complexity, richness, and intensity, with oodles of creme de cassis fruit and plenty of roasted herbs and meatiness, with exceptional power and richness, this wine has fleshed out since I had it last year, and seems to be destined to be one of Bond’s most compelling wines, a full-bodied wine with great purity, richness, and beautifully integrated acidity, wood, and tannin. Give it 1-3 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 25 years.

2004 HARLAN THE MAIDEN $325
95RP
I was blown away by the 2004 The Maiden, which out of bottle is even better than it was from barrel. This wine exhibits a rather flamboyant scorched earth, lead pencil, incense, licorice, and blackberry and cassis-scented nose and flavors. The wine has superb concentration and is opulent, fleshy, and very much in keeping with the style of the vintage. Despite its accessibility, I suspect this wine will drink well for at least two decades.

2004 HARLAN ESTATE $750
98RP
The 2004 Harlan Estate is probably the most precocious and accessible Harlan Estate that this perfectionist team has made. 

Already compelling, the wine has notes of roasted coffee, charcoal, blackberry, spring flowers, and some background sweet, toasty notes. Dense, fleshy, exuberant, even flamboyant by the standards of Bill Harlan, this wine exhibits no jaggedness or rough edges, has relatively high tannins, but they melt away on the palate. 

The wine is sensationally well-endowed, long, and rich – a tour de force in winemaking. They can do no wrong at Harlan, and it is obvious, even in the most challenging vintages such as 1998, that this estate is a true grand cru/first growth, making wines of irrefutable world-class quality. Of course, none of this comes cheap, as the price is now moving up into the league with Screaming Eagle, but there are no shortage of takers.

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