March 31, 2024 - Although enjoyable, it did not live up to expectations. Decanted and sampled over 2 hrs before dinner. What little fruit remains faded somewhat over the 2 hrs, so if I had another I would decant off sediment and serve immediately. Nose was stewed plums, prunes, cedar, typical aged bordeaux. Nice tastes of baked fig, dried cherry, leather, menthol, but too much 2nd and 3rd, not enough fruit remains. Medium weight. Surprisingly short, alcohol-burn finish. Drink up - it won't get better IMO.
January 1, 2024 - Excellent-outstanding.
November 13, 2023 - Wonderful. Tertiary but still delicious. Drank over 2 days, better on second.
September 16, 2023 - In 2018 this vintage was one of the greatest wines I/we ever have had. It was open mature and powerful. Now it has reached an older phace and reminds me of an older good left bank Bordeaux. Interesting!
March 5, 2023 - Reading the reviews below, there are clearly two schools here: superb and underwhelming, and I am in the latter camp. Not my first bottle but the first one where I highly questioned the value. The wine is a medium-dark inky purple/blue, age appropriate. The first whiff of the nose after a 45 minute decant was an off kilter stewed fruit element that seemed misplaced and indicative of heat damage. Not sure why this might have been since I bought this direct and stored perfectly. Beneath this stewed nose, there was some nice complexity to the wine with forest floor, dark fruits and espresso all making an appearance and creating a richly textured finish. Extremely high amounts of sediment, also a bit unusual. Knowing the producer, I’ll assume bottle was somehow mishandled, but I still can’t rate it any higher.
June 27, 2022 - From 1.5L...slow ox for 5 hours then decanted for 3+ hours and it needed all that time to settle in. Not the best Harlan I've had, but still very enjoyable. Opened 2001 mag last year and it was exceptional. I don't know if age will help the 2004 but it certainly still has plenty of life left, especially out of large format.
March 8, 2022 - A good bottle but still feels young. Not shutdown just not yet unfurled.
December 25, 2021 - Very underwhelming for a thousand dollar bottle. My first Harlan ever. Loads of sediment in the bottle too that I would expect more from a bottle much older. Maybe it was stored improperly? After a 6 hour decant it became decent, but not incredible by any measure. I won’t give up on this fabled winemaker, but I have high expectations for my next bottle!
December 25, 2021 - Drank on Christmas Day. This came out singing in the initial pour, was a mistake to decant for an hour as first glass was the best. Typical Harlan sweet black fruit with coffee and cedar tones. Think good bottles are drinking well into their window and better to drink now before becomes a bit more tired as some alcoholic heat poked through.
December 4, 2021 - 5 hr decant. High expectations were never realized. Perfectly fine but i wad underwhelmed.