2012 Harlan Estate
Community Tasting Note
Cailles wrote:
Tuesday, May 21, 2019 - 9 Vintages of Harlan (1994-2014): Some conclusions/highlights: Harlan is certainly one of the most consistently elegant, feminine Napa wines. Wonderfully smooth structure and texture, airiness in the best possible way. Exceptional! Still, they’re not light and come with a very good aromatic pressure and complexity. While the most recent vintages showed close to perfection, the vintages from the 90s didn‘t live up to expectations. Unfortunately, they (and I include the 2004) all seemed on the downward path showing signs of fatigue with some unwanted tones on the nose (not palate) despite a most perfect provenance. The younger vintages (coming not from 10 but 30+ year old wines) will certainly have a much longer life. The best wine was the 2012, followed by 2014, 2013 and 2005. Especially the young vintages are certainly among the best Napa has to offer and worth buying.
TN: The best wine of the night. Perfectly ripe red and dark berries, baking spices, vanilla, cool and fresh nose. Rose hip, rhubarb, lots of sour cherries, a nice layer of minerality with graphite and wet crushed rocks, with time stingy toasted oak aromas. Medium+ complexity which will certainly improve once tertiary development kicks-in. All this signature Napa aromas and sweet ripeness comes in an absolute weightless and airy structure with the finest tannins and a perfect acidity with a long fruit- and mineral-driven finish. Really in a great place and it‘s quite rare to get all these Napa characteristics in such an elegant and weightless frame (the Maybach Materium `14 and the Realm Dr. Crane `14 I had recently come to mind).
Decanting: 2.5h slow-ox, almost 2h in the glass. I believe this might be good from the start but as this glass was so perfect I would give it a 3-4h decant.
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