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2002 Harlan Estate

2002 Harlan Estate

100 RP

Featured Review
The extraordinary Harlan Estate, which I awarded 100 points seven years ago, offers no justifiable reason to doubt its perfect score. It is still a baby, with an inky purple color and notes of smoky camphor intermixed with creme de cassis, Asian soy and a hint of cedar beginning to emerge as well as some espresso and subtle damp forest floor notes. The wine has awesome intensity, a full-bodied mouthfeel, a skyscraper-like texture, and a finish that goes on for close to a minute. This is a perfect wine, still youthful and young, and not even in full adolescence as of 2012. It has 40 or more years ahead of it, but should hit its plateau of full maturity in another 5-10 years. It is certainly one of the most showy , flamboyant and remarkable Harlan Estates made to date. (More recently, the 2007 tends to resemble this wine more than any other vintage I can think of.) Kudos to Bill Harlan! Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Robert Parker | 100 RP

Critic Reviews

The extraordinary Harlan Estate, which I awarded 100 points seven years ago, offers no justifiable reason to doubt its perfect score. It is still a baby, with an inky purple color and notes of smoky camphor intermixed with creme de cassis, Asian soy and a hint of cedar beginning to emerge as well as some espresso and subtle damp forest floor notes. The wine has awesome intensity, a full-bodied mouthfeel, a skyscraper-like texture, and a finish that goes on for close to a minute. This is a perfect wine, still youthful and young, and not even in full adolescence as of 2012. It has 40 or more years ahead of it, but should hit its plateau of full maturity in another 5-10 years. It is certainly one of the most showy , flamboyant and remarkable Harlan Estates made to date. (More recently, the 2007 tends to resemble this wine more than any other vintage I can think of.) Kudos to Bill Harlan!

Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 100 RP
The aroma is deep and inviting, equal parts new oak, Cabernet fruit and dried herbs. Has tremendous weight, with red and black cherry, cola, chocolate, cassis and roasted coconut flavors. Brilliant now, virtually flawless and totally delicious, yet has the impeccable balance to age and even improve over the years. The listed price is its pre-release price. Drink now through at least 2020.

Wine Enthusiast | 99 WE
Deep medium ruby. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, blackberry, candied violet, licorice pastille, black pepper and a suggestion of dusty earth. Like a liquid confection in the mouth: thick and sweet yet almost magically shapely and fresh. The longest, most inexorably palate-staining wine of my tour of the North Coast in early March: this lost no strength in my mouth after I had spit it. Damn near close to perfect wine; only my own refusal to give a perfect score to a wine that’s still a decade or more short of its peak kept my score down. Bill Harlan, incidentally, compares the 2002 vintage to the 1995, which is showing spectacularly today. (I was able to retaste the extraordinary 2001, which is perhaps even more classic than the 2002 if not quite as extravagantly thick, with slightly more roasted yet sappy aromas and flavors of crystallized berries, minerals, tar and licorice, and great inner-mouth energy and persistence. This very backward wine has the acid/tannin spine to evolve in bottle for 15 to 20 years. On my latest tasting I rated it 96(+?).

Vinous Media | 98 VM
Offers a core of rich dark berry, sour cherry, black licorice, loamy earth and dried berry flavors. Full-bodied, firmly tannic, yet deep and concentrated, almost too young in this tasting.--2002 California Cabernet blind retrospective (May 2012). Drink now through 2024. 1,248 cases made.

Wine Spectator | 94 WS

Wine Details for 2002 Harlan Estate

Type of Wine California Red : Whether it's Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Zinfandel, Californian red wine producers have a lovely habit of taking a varietal and expressing its essence in a unique, never before seen way. From Napa Valley to the regions south of Los Angeles, there's a red for everyone - and it's never too late to start exploring.
Varietal Proprietary Blend : Proprietary Blend is a general term used to indicate that a wine is comprised of multiple grape varietals which are either “proprietary” to the winery or is blended and does not meet the required maximum or minimum percentage of a particular varietal. This also is the case for the grape’s place of origin, especially for region, appellation or vineyard designated wines. There are endless examples of blended wines which are labeled as “Proprietary Blend” and in conjunction with each region’s stipulated wine laws and regulations makes for a vast blanket for wines to fall into. Perhaps the simplest example is California; if a wine is to be labeled as Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, it is required to have at least 75% of the varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon) and 85% of the fruit must be cultivated from the Napa Valley wine district. If the wine does not meet the requirements, it is then labeled as Proprietary Blend.

Country US : As one of the most prolific and innovative wine regions in the world, America is a joy to explore. Most wine connoisseurs will agree that the nation's finest and most compelling wines are being produced today, which means that we have front-row seats to one of the most inspirational stories in wine history. While other regions tend to focus on specific wine styles and have somewhat strict rules as to which varietals you could grow, areas like California have few such restrictions in place. As a result, creative visionaries behind America's most reputable estates have been able to develop compelling, unique, and innovative styles, with a level of terroir expression that rivals even France's largest giants.
Region California : With a history of wine production that dates back to the 18th century, California currently sits as one of the world's most prolific and reputable wine regions. With an area as vast as California, you can expect a colorful collage of terroir profiles, a series of microclimates, and micro-environments that give the wine a unique, memorable appeal. The region's produce is far from homogenized in that sense, and it would take you countless hours to sample all of it. While the region boasts scars from the Prohibition era, it went through what can only be described as a viticultural Renaissance sometime after the 1960s. At that point, California went from a port-style, sweet wine region to a versatile and compelling competitor on the world market. Today, no matter which way your taste in wine leans, you can find a new favorite producer among California's most talented.

Notable sub-regions include legendary names like Napa Valley and Sonoma County, places that any wine lover would die to visit. California's quintessential warm climate allows for incredibly ripe fruit expressions, a style that provides a stark contrast to Old World-inspired, earthy classics. Even where inspiration was clearly taken from staple French appellations, Californian winemakers put their own unique spin on the wine.

Overview

Producer Harlan Estate : During the early 1970’s a viticultural renaissance was occurring in Napa Valley and throughout most of California’s fertile winegrowing hotspots. Individuals with dreams of becoming vintners and owning wineries flocked to Oakford, Rutherford, the Sonoma Coast and other locales in hopes of bringing to fruition those dreams. As it is synonymous with winegrowing, those dreams can never bear fruit without roots.

Bill Harlan had led a colorful life flying planes, gambling professionally and eventually becoming a successful real estate developer but his dream was to own a “little winery.” His expertise in real estate enabled him to see value in something that may not visibly display it. Harlan had been searching for prime land in Napa for his own vineyard, when a dilapidated country club came on the market. Harlan realized the value and the birth of his dream blossomed. The property was transformed into the Meadowood and became the top hotel and resort in Napa Valley. The first Napa Valley Wine Auction took place at the Meadowood in 1981 and has every year since.

The preparation for the auction led Harlan on a trip to France organized by Robert Mondavi in 1980 in which visits to the First Growth of Bordeaux and Grand Crus of Burgundy were arranged. A sense of clarity followed, as did an entirely new perspective on the world of wine. The trip became a transformative experience and one that would ultimately catapult him to becoming one of Napa Valley’s finest wine producers.

Little by little Harlan began acquiring the finest lands looking to mimic the terroir, landscape and soil structure of First Growth Bordeaux. The next important step was to build a key team of individuals who shared his passion in bringing ideas into reality. To design and create something that has never before existed in the hope that it will survive for centuries means that each of the thousands of decisions involved in its making requires clarity of thought and purpose; and intimate knowledge of the terrain where the building and planting will occur.

Today that continuity, drive and unmistakable passion remains at Harlan Estate where a dream of becoming a vintner and owning a “small vineyard” has come to fruition and ever more so, as it has become a First Growth Napa Valley producer with such an allure that it is now World-renowned. With much the same vision, the vineyards are planted to mimic the best Bordeaux estates on impressively high elevations in Oakville. The varietal combination would be at home in Bordeaux as well; comprised of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot.

Harlan Estate has become a mythical California Cabernet and are sold to a member’s list only. They can be found on secondary markets but with a yield of only 1,200 to 2,000 cases produced annually, it has become as elusive as it is sought after. A second wine, The Maiden, is produced as well and a mere 900 cases are produced each year. Not many people can boast of flying planes, gambling professionally, or developing land in wine country, but Bill Harlan’s idea of a more colorful lifestyle was to own his own winery, and that he certainly accomplished.

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