Harlan Estate
Encyclopedia
California wine
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...
estate producing Bordeaux
Bordeaux wine
A Bordeaux wine is any wine produced in the Bordeaux region of France. Average vintages produce over 700 million bottles of Bordeaux wine, ranging from large quantities of everyday table wine, to some of the most expensive and prestigious wines in the world...
style blends. The estate is located on the west hills of Oakville, California within the Oakville AVA
Oakville AVA
The Oakville AVA is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley AVA and centered around the town of Oakville, California. The appellation extends over a flat expanse of well drained gravel soil between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains...
, in the Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, United States. Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine regions in the United States...
zone.
Harlan Estate has been described as "the ultimate cult winery", with its limited availability, prices and status akin to those of Screaming Eagle
Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards
Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards is a California wine estate producing limited amounts of varietal wine; due to the small quantities produced and high prices commanded, their wines are considered cult wines...
. In addition to the estate wine, there is produced a second wine
Second wine
Second wine is a term commonly associated with Bordeaux wine to refer to a second label wine made from cuvee not selected for use in the Grand vin or first label...
named The Maiden.
History
In 1984, H. William Harlan, a real estate developer and Napa Valley resort owner, purchased a 230 acres (93.1 ha) property, a forested area, with steep hillsides, multiple elevations and exposures, west of Martha's Vineyard in Oakville, and proceeded to clear 30 acres (12.1 ha) for viticultureViticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
, with Harlan's expressed ambition to "create a first growth
First Growth
First Growth status refers to a classification of wines primarily from the Bordeaux region of France.-Bordeaux reds:The need for a classification of the best Bordeaux wines arose for the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris. The result was the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, a list...
wine".
The first Harlan Estate wine label, a design inspired by a 19th century engraving which was overseen by retired U.S. Treasury engraver Herb Fichter, was 10 years in the making, from when Bill Harlan first started his search for an engraver to the release of the 1990 vintage in 1996. On its qualities, Harlan has stated, "It was a label designed for a bottle that would sit on a table in candlelight, not on a store shelf."
Described by Jancis Robinson
Jancis Robinson
Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...
as "one of the ten best wines of the twentieth century", and consistent acclaim from Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator
Wine Spectator is a lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertainment pieces...
, and Robert Parker
Robert M. Parker, Jr.
Robert M. Parker, Jr. is a leading U.S. wine critic with an international influence. His wine ratings on a 100-point scale and his newsletter The Wine Advocate, with his particular stylistic preferences and notetaking vocabulary, have become very influential in American wine buying and are...
, including four scores of 100 "parker points", have further contributed to the wine's high prices and long waiting lists. Released at $245 per bottle, the price soon rises on the speculative market, and the cost may range from $450 to $2,000. A 10-vintage vertical selection of magnum bottles sold at the 2000 Napa Valley Wine Auction for $700,000.
The winemaker Robert Levy, has worked with Harlan since 1983 when Harlan took part in founding the Merryvale Winery, and since 1989 the estate has retained Michel Rolland
Michel Rolland
Michel Rolland is an influential Bordeaux-based oenologist, with hundreds of clients across 13 countries and influencing wine style around the world...
as consultant enologist. Construction of the current winery was completed in 2002.
Production
The estate extends 240 acres (97.1 ha), of which approximately 15% of the land, 38 acres (15.4 ha) is cultivated with the grape varieties Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...
, Merlot
Merlot
Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...
, Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc
Cabernet Franc is one of the major black grape varieties worldwide. It is principally grown for blending with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the Bordeaux style, but can also be vinified alone - as in the Loire's Chinon...
and Petit Verdot
Petit verdot
Petit Verdot is a variety of red wine grape, principally used in classic Bordeaux blends. It ripens much later than the other varieties in Bordeaux, often too late, so it fell out of favour in its home region. When it does ripen, it is added in small amounts to add tannin, colour and flavour to the...
.
Most vintages from 1990 through 1997 have been Cabernet Sauvignon-based Bordeaux blends, but since the 1998 vintage, the estate wine has been 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
A maximum 2,000 cases are annually produced of Harlan estate, with approximately 700-800 cases made of The Maiden.
Bond
Beginning production in 1997, Harlan founded the Bond Estates, in collaboration with winemaker Robert Levy and vineyard manager Mary Maher, with the intent to identify and produce wine from "grand crus" of Napa Valley. Erroneously described as second wines of Harlan Estate, the Bond winery is located on the western hills of Oakville.From small separate plots there is produced terroir
Terroir
Terroir comes from the word terre "land". It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that the geography, geology and climate of a certain place bestowed upon particular varieties...
-specific Cabernet Sauvignon wines, named Melbury from East of St. Helena, St. Eden from Northeast of Oakville, Vecina from Southwest of Oakville, Pluribus from west of St. Helena and the blended second wine Matriarch, each wine with the limited production of approximately 700 cases.
The Napa Valley Reserve
Situated on an eighty-acre (32-hectare) property in St. Helena, CaliforniaSt. Helena, California
St. Helena is a city in Napa County, California, United States. It is part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 5,814 at the 2010 census....
, with close ties to luxury resort Meadowood (which Harlan established in 1979), the Napa Valley Reserve is a members-only winery and vineyard project founded in 2004 and described as "the nation's first wine country club", and as "the wine world's most elite fantasy camp".
Participants pay a $140,000 initiation fee and monthly dues of $80, commit to a minimum of 150 bottles, and may create up to 900 bottles for $45,000. With a client base that includes actors, sports stars, and affluent professional workers, the establishent is an invitation-only club. Besides wine, the Napa Valley Reserve produces olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
and honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
.