x
  • Country ranking ?

    247
  • Producer ranking ?

    29
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2030
  • Food Pairing

    Roast Duck Breast with Dried Cherry Sauce

The Tb points given to this wine are the world’s most valid and most up-to-date evaluation of the quality of the wine. Tastingbook points are formed by the Tastingbook algorithm which takes into account the wine ratings of the world's best-known professional wine critics, wine ratings by thousands of tastingbook’s professionals and users, the generally recognised vintage quality and reputation of the vineyard and winery. Wine needs at least five professional ratings to get the Tb score. Tastingbook.com is the world's largest wine information service which is an unbiased, non-commercial and free for everyone.

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The Story

With the founding of Harlan Estate in 1984, we embarked upon our mission of creating a “first growth” of California. The estate’s early vineyard development began with just six acres. Today our planting is essentially complete, with nearly forty acres under vine to the classic varietals: cabernet sauvignon (70%), merlot (20%), cabernet franc (8%), and petit verdot (2%). Invariably, the finished wine is predominately cabernet sauvignon, which we blend with varying amounts of the other three varietals as we seek to express faithfully the unique and distinctive character of the site.

Modest quantities of wine were produced in 1987, 1988, and 1989 from grapes that represented the second, third, and fourth leaf of our estate vineyard. In each of those years a small number of barrels were produced in the hope of gaining a prescient glimpse into what the character of the land—never before cultivated—might have to offer. The wines were blended, bottled, and labeled with a special designation. Though charming in their own way, these first wines fell short of our standards and aspirations, so were never released. They continue to serve as humble reminders of where we began the journey.

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Wine Information

1999

Near-average (25.8 inches) winter rainfall lingered through April. Budbreak came April 10-15.Moderate temperatures in May and June gave way to warm mid-summer temps.

Thelate-arriving harvest did not begin until September 28 and lasted until October 22.

Yields ranged from a lowly 1.0 ton per acre for the petit verdot to 1.7 tons per acre for the merlot and cabernet sauvignon.

tasting notes

Bright, intense red, with slight garnet edge. A concentrated and dense, almost brooding wine,
with moderately intense aromas of sweet vanilla, espresso, chocolate, mint, and cassis, and additional notes of tobacco, forest floor, figs, prunes, and black olives. A silky entry,with a focused mid-palate, finishing long and elegant, with a touch of the sauvage in the finish.
A very nice overall impression. Enjoy now, then for 15+ years.

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

17 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Deep and Purple

ending

Long, Lingering and Spicy

flavors

Blackberry, Blackcurrant, Mint, Plum, Toasty and Leather

nose

Youthful and Opulent

recommend

Yes

taste

High alcohol content, Well-structured, Complex, Good texture, Developing, Full-bodied, Rich, Elegant and Silky tannins

Verdict

Impressive

Written Notes

Ruby with faint brick rim. Blackberries and anise, spices, liquorice, rich and deep nose, intense. Fresh acidity, ripe tannins, blackberries and spices, coffee, liquorice, dense, rich and intense, coffee, long. 93

  • 93p

Sweet aromatic black fruits nose with some liqueur-like ripeness. The palate is sweet and ripe with plum and blackberry fruit, but it is quite warm and alcoholic, and while it’s a nice drink it is lacking real complexity. 90/100 

  • 90p

Bright ruby. Very sexy, deeply pitched, liqueur-like aromas of black raspberry, cherry and dark chocolate; superripe but not porty. Utterly suave and lush in the mouth, with great silky depths of sweet black raspberry flavor. Liqueur-like but not as roasted as the '97. This is truly three-dimensional in texture. Finishes with sweet, palate-coating tannins and slow-mounting, extremely persistent flavors. The blend is about 80% cabernet sauvignon, from a very small crop.

  • 96p

The 1999 Harlan Estate is another powerful, massively tannic wine. Unlike the 2001, however, the 1999 does not appear to have enough fruit to balance its imposing structural elements. My impression is that the 1999 will always be austere, until the fruit eventually fades. In other words, I don’t think the 1999 will ever find its center of balance.

  • 92p

This is the feminine side of Harlan with floral aromatics on the nose with less density and concentration on the palate. It is a pretty wine with delicate layers and beautiful detail.

  • 94p
Near-average (25.8 inches) winter rainfall lingered through April. Budbreak came April 10-15. Moderate temperatures in May and June gave way to warm mid-summer temps. The late-arriving harvest did not begin until September 28 and lasted until October 22. Yields ranged from a lowly 1.0 ton per acre for the petit verdot to 1.7 tons per acre for the merlot and cabernet sauvignon. tasting notes Bright, intense red, with slight garnet edge. A concentrated and dense, almost brooding wine, with moderately intense aromas of sweet vanilla, espresso, chocolate, mint, and cassis, and additional notes of tobacco, forest floor, figs, prunes, and black olives. A silky entry, with a focused mid-palate, finishing long and elegant, with a touch of the sauvage in the finish. A very nice overall impression. Enjoy now, then for 15+ years.
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Information

Origin

Oakville, Napa Valley

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Good

Investment potential

Very Good

Fake factory

None

Glass time

2h

Inside Information

96 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

  Good deep red-ruby. Sexy aromas of wild plum, violet, graphite and minerals, with captivating saline and baked bread nuances. Sweet on entry, then wonderfully bright and gripping in the middle palate, displaying very ripe plum and currant flavors complicated by wild herbs and a whiff of game. This boasts a lovely combination of sweetness of fruit and bracing acid spine. Finishes juicy and extremely long, with outstanding lift.   (6/ 2010)

96 points Wine Enthusiast

  An exceptional wine. Fragrant, with plenty of plum, black cherry, cedar and spice aromas. On the palate, it’s silky smooth, elegant and fresh, yet packed with complex layers of blackberry, cassis, chocolate, coffee, anise, sage, thyme and cherry flavors. Marked by an exquisite textural elegance and harmonious balance, it displays a fine blend of firm, supple tannins and appropriate acidty that support great length on the finish.   (7/ 2003)

95 points Wine Spectator

  Taut and slow to unfold, with green and black olive, savory herb and mocha flavors, unfolding with layers of currant, plum, espresso bean and mineral, followed by an impressive finish. From a cool year. (Web Only- 2010) 

94 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  Very deep garnet-black colour going brick at the rim. Complex, maturing nose with notes of warm blackberry, game, dried plums, moss, white pepper, Provence herbs and a whiff of iron ore. The palate reveals a concentrated, medium to full bodied wine balanced by medium acidity and a medium to firm level of velvety tannins. Very long finish departing with lingering savoury and mineral flavours.   (1/ 2009)

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