#24 Wine Spectator top 100 (1998 edition - 1995 vintage)

winemaker’s tasting notes
Like the vines themselves, the 2022 vintage lives as much below the surface as above. The wine presents, on the nose, a polished composure, yet beneath this elegant reserve, elusive scents of dark fruit and fragrant dried herbs stir. These understated aromas intimate the dimension and detail that lay beneath—elements that gradually coalesce and bloom with time in the glass.
The palate, by contrast, introduces a pleasingly weighted texture that immediately envelopes the mouth, its supple center framed by smoothly beveled edges. A lively freshness burgeons at the midpoint, buoyed by ample acidity, while a savory, umami note precedes the rise of intricately structured, softly woven tannins. These latter, as they advance, release a warmth that—like a concentrated droplet of bright tempera when it touches water—blossoms, then slowly disperses, on the prolonged finish.
 
Harlan Estate is a high-profile, critically-lauded wine producer based in the Oakville AVA of Napa Valley, California. The vineyard is superbly located in the hills above Martha's Vineyard (Heitz Cellar) and To Kalon (Robert Mondavi), just north of Napa town itself. Its Cabernet Sauvignon-based flagship wine is one of California's most sought-after wines, regularly commanding prices exceeding $1000 per bottle.
The estate was founded in 1984 by property developer William (known as "Bill") Harlan. He had previously developed the Meadowood resort before buying 240 acres (97 hectares) of steep, densely wooded land above the western Oakville benchlands.
Some 40 acres (16 hectares) of this was cleared for vineyards. These are mostly planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, but with smaller amounts of other red Bodeaux varieties. 
The eastern blocks are sited on residual sediments on top of volcanic bedrock, including fractured flow rock and tuff. Western blocks lie mostly on older residual sediments developed from Great Valley sequence bedrock.
In 1997, Harlan founded BOND in collaboration with winemaker Bob Levy to again produce more prestigious wines from Napa Valley. It’s hard to say exactly why the wines are as good as they are, except to point to obvious factors, such as location, terroir and the talents of Harlan’s longtime team, but they have undoubtedly earned their supreme cult status.
Winemaking
Whole-berry fermentations in small oak vats help provide a gentle extraction. Free-run wine is then fed by gravity into barrels for malolactic fermentation.
The wine then spends around 24 to 26 months in a mix of new and used French oak barrels. It is bottled unfined and unfiltered at the estate.
Members of the original team, including director Don Weaver, who joined Bill Harlan a couple of years after the land purchase, and Bob Levy, who oversaw winemaking and viticulture from the beginning, remain at the estate as important advisors along with Bill Harlan. Cory Empting started at the estate in 2001 and today is the director of winemaking, while Bill’s son, Will Harlan, joined the team in 2012 and was named managing director in 2021. Amanda Harlan, Bill’s youngest, has recently come on board, overseeing sales and marketing.