Wow! What a spectacular once-in-a-lifetime wine experience we had last night at Graileys! We hosted a ten year vertical tasting of one of California’s iconic Cult Classics: Harlan Estate. From their inaugural commercial release of 1990 through 1999, we tasted each vintage side by side and fully reaped the hard work and dedication that was sown by Napa’s leading figureheads Bill Harlan, winemaker Bob Levy and the Harlan team so many decades ago. To our knowledge, a tasting like this has only been done one time before and that was by the legends themselves, Bill Harlan and Bob Levy. Our deepest gratitude, reverence and love goes out to fellow Graileys member and our dear friend Ivan the Fiver for graciously sharing his personal collection with us to experience together in this majestic lineup! For an event of this grandeur, we called Chef Tre Wilcox, one of our favorite local chefs, who prepared an outstanding meal to fit our magnificent tasting. This ten year Harlan vertical was truly an unforgettable event!
1990- Beautiful, really soft and elegant nose. Gorgeous silky texture with seamless secondary flavors more reminiscent of a great aged Bordeaux. Leather, dried tobacco, dense forest floor lead the palate and the red and black currants were preserved beautifully with a touch of fresh eucalyptus in the finish.
1991- *** One of the star vintages of the night! Harlan in a Bordeaux body! The most Bordeaux like in style with toasted forest floor, fall leaves, dried tobacco leaves and gravel dominating the palate. Black currant was still fresh and alive with ripe herbs, black pepper, black tea, eucalyptus and smoke creating this amazing compelling profile! In addition to its amazing flavors, this bottle had the most insane extended finish which left our palates dazed well long after the glass was empty. It was showing at the perfect spot and it still has such great life ahead of it.
1992- Dusty elements of crushed shells, graphite and smoke. Much like the 1990, the ’92 was more elegant in weight than the ’91. Soft forest floor and wild violets blended in seamlessly with the softened red and black cherry fruit and the finish was lengthy.
1993- Greater power and weight than the vintages before it. The ’93 showed was more red currant driven and higher toned with wild red spices, fresh leather, crushed tobacco and licorice. Great long finish!
1994- *** The standout of the night! It is no wonder that this vintage received 100 Points from Robert Parker! This was truly a PERFECT BOTTLE OF WINE. Absolutely gorgeous fruit, sweet pipe tobacco, rich mocha, explosive ripe red and black berries with licorice, exotic teas and spice, roasted espresso… I can go forever! And did I mention the texture!?! Wow! Striking weight full of complex flavors all presented through a silk ribbon like texture.
1995- Exotic spices dominated this wine with dark chocolate, mocha and leather following suit. More old world like in flavors and texture with great power and elements of black tea, dried cloves, star anise while black and red currants took the backseat this time around. Although the flavors in the finish dispersed a little sooner than expected, the shadow lingered enticingly.
1996- Take the rich spices of the ’95 and add power, weight and prevailing fruit. Strap leather, mocha and black pepper with pronounced notes of red tea, dusty minerals and tobacco.
1997- Another 100 Pointer vintage for Harlan! Hedonistic in sweet fruit and spice! Everything in this bottle was wild and sexy. Rich licorice, warm vanilla bean, juicy ripe black cherry and blackberry liquor. The sheer power in this wine blew us away.
1998- The fruit was slightly restrained while the leather, crushed gravel and black tea drove the wine. Toward the end of the night the black berry fruit shone through with authority creating a magnificent experience.
1999- At the end of the night, the ’99 blew up into a lavish bottle of wine! Brilliant red spice with plus red and purple florals, seductive red and black cherry, berry, currant, plum and everything in between! The texture exemplified the flavors perfectly: fleshy, powerful, rich and sexy.
As if the ten year Harlan vertical didn’t blow our minds, in true Graileys’ fashion, the show must go on no matter how impressive the previous wines were; and believe me, the Harlan lineup was more than impressive. So Simon went straight for a bottle of 1989 Haut Brion! Outside of Harlan, this was the wine of the night! Truly stunning in every way with power, life, abundant flavors, multiple dimensions and complexities with a killer finish that is nearly as impenetrable as the wine itself! When one opens a 1989 Haut Brion, why not throw in a 1989 Pichon Baron, a 1996 Haut Brion and a 2000 Ponsot Clos de la Roche! Wow, what a crazy night we had! And yes, these wines were outrageously delicious. Perhaps it was due to all of the powerhouse Cabernet driven wines we were enjoying, but the ’00 Clos de la Roche stood out with beautiful silky grace!
Ryan also opened a bottle of the 2003 Royal Tokaji Essencia- the rich flavors in this exceptional dessert wine were as golden as its color. If you can taste the word ‘regal’ in a glass of wine, this Hungarian treasure just nailed it! Gorgeous honey, sweet Meyer lemon preserves, quince, ripe melon, rich spice and almond skin. This wine tasted like the royalty it once served centuries ago.
It was truly a spectacular experience to taste through these early vintages of one of California’s most coveted estates; but more importantly, this experience could only be as memorable as it is due to our dear friends with whom we shared this experience.