Last year, Harlan Estate celebrated its 40th anniversary. From the beginning, it was destined for greatness; the way that H. William Harlan chose the site for the now-legendary estate, the attention to detail that the founding winemaker Bob Levy brought to his work in the vineyard and winery, the uncompromising focus on expressing the land in profound and incredibly age-worthy ways—all of it has led to Harlan Estate achieving what its founder set out to create more than four decades ago: A true California First Growth.
Harlan Estate’s reputation as one of the great wine producers not just in Napa Valley but in the world of wine has been the result of countless small decisions along the way that have ultimately led to its exalted status. Earlier this year, I visited the estate and tasted a number of back vintages with managing director Will Harlan and winemaker Cory Empting. It was a fascinating, transportingly delicious experience, and highlighted just how thoughtful an approach they take…and have always taken.
Their vineyard, for example, is far more than the sum of its constituent parts precisely because each individual aspect is so obsessed over in order to maximize quality. It’s standard practice, for example, for a vineyard to be broken up into blocks, each of which is handled as its terroir, underlying geology, micro-climate, and grape varieties require. But Harlan Estate is the first that I’ve ever seen where they’re farming each individual vine as it needs.
Every aspect of Harlan Estate’s wine is considered in granular detail, starting with the farming of … More the individual vines.
Courtesy of Harlan Estate
The team’s work in the vineyard, Empting explained, “Has to be tailored to every block and every vine in a way.” He added: “I think how we farm…working with individual vines, is necessary because we’re trying to dry farm and be on this edge. You can’t do that thinking about a block. You have to do that thinking about a vine.”
It’s a huge undertaking, but the results speak for themselves: Harlan Estate is as deeply expressive of its place of origin as it is precisely because the team works tirelessly to give the land every opportunity to shine through vintage after vintage.
That character came through with pristine clarity in all of the wines I tasted, despite the fact that their farming has evolved over the years, the vine age has changed, and certain aspects of the winemaking have shifted.
“I think we have this very interesting culture where we’re trying to understand and try to re-integrate this kind of forgotten language of nature. At the same time, we want to be able to do things that people would say, ‘Well, that’s not practical’ or ‘That’s not possible,’” Empting said. “I think we don’t want to let those constraints define who we are. So it’s not to say that we want to do everything that’s impossible, but it’s just that we don’t want to put up barriers…And so I think once you have [the will]
and this ability to do things, you’re like, ‘Well, if we could do something better, would we do it?’”
At every turn, the answer has been yes. Yet for all of the incremental changes that the team has made to the farming and the winemaking, tasting vintages from each of their first four decades side by side showcases just how brilliantly they’ve been able to express the truth of their land through the lens of their flagship wine, even though styles have shifted and occasionally divergent vintage conditions are also fascinatingly apparent. In other words, the DNA of the place itself shines through across the wines with impressive clarity.
H. William Harlan, above, founded his eponymous, iconic estate four decades ago.
Courtesy of Harlan Estate
The 1995 Harlan Estate, for example, was magnificent, and at an impeccable place of its evolution. This was mouth-filling and gorgeously layered, with cigar humidor, sandalwood, tobacco leaf, singed sage, cherries, and mountain berries, all of it still so full of energy. “This was not a fun wine for the majority of its life,” noted managing director Will Harlan. But it has reached a place of surpassing harmony and expressiveness in recent years. “It was just flying under the radar [for so long], but in the last few years, it’s showed a lot more levels of finesse and nuance.” Today, it is a vibrant, detailed wonder—clearly worth the wait.
Nine years younger, the 2006 Harlan Estate is just entering the early stages of what promises to be a decades-long peak. The depth and richness in this wine was stunning, with shimmering aromas of blue fruit, boysenberries, black raspberries, figs, and tones of star anise. The depth and richness were phenomenal, and the acidity and lengthy tannins promise serious aging potential still to come. At bottling, Empting recalled that it was so firm as to be almost drying; the vintage, he noted, was a great lesson in tannin texture, and how the quality of those tannins is so deeply impacted by the work in the vineyard, not just the winery. Today, the structure that those tannins have given the wine have allowed it to evolve as beautifully as it has.
The 2012 Harlan Estate, even at a relatively youthful 13 years old, was already a show-stopper. Plush notes of figs, blueberries, black cherries, sweet spice, aged cigar tobacco, and dates are given savory layers by flashes of candied violets, cacao nibs, and allspice. The texture is plush, generous, and long on the palate—it’s the kind of wine that, if you have multiple bottles, will reward tasting now and every five years or so moving forward. The potential is tremendous, but the present is irresistible, too.
Finally, we tasted the 2020 Harlan Estate, which showed a beautiful juxtaposition of aromatics between the more lifted and the more earth-driven. Absolutely gorgeous tannins, fine-grained yet assertive, long and persistent, frame blue fruits and violets, as well as sage, eucalyptus, licorice, minerals, and a subtle mintiness. Vibrant blue fruits are joined by black raspberries and cherries, and the interplay of plushness and nervy energy brings a fabulous sense of life to each sip.
Over the years, I’ve had the very good fortune to taste Harlan Estate from a wide range of vintages, and at many different stages of evolution. What has always struck me is how beautiful the wines are, regardless of their power, structure, or maturity at that given moment in time. But comparing wines from four different decades side by side highlighted just how remarkable a place this is, and how an obsessive attention to every last detail has resulted in an estate whose name is synonymous with some of the best Cabernet Sauvignon in the world. It will be fascinating, and undoubtedly delicious, to follow them over the next 40 years and well beyond.
The Harlan Estate winery fits into its environment with impressive grace. In that regard, it mirrors … More the wines produced there beautifully.
Courtesy of Harlan Estate