2004 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red

Very deep garnet-black colour with a purple rim. Though still very youthful and muted, this vintage is already subtly revealing a wide array of aromas including blackberry tart, cedar, violets, truffles, liquorice and all spice. In the mouth however this is no shrinking violet – the ’04 is a big, concentrated and highly structured wine with somewhat impenetrable, tightly grained tannins and medium to high acid supporting its rich weight. Very, very long finish displaying hints of savoury earthiness and that signature minerality that appears to surface in better years. Drink 2009 – 2030. Tasted November 2008. Lisa Perrotti-Brown, eRobertParker.com

Another rating identical to that which was given in 2007 (when first tasted from bottle), the 2004 Harlan Estate is performing essentially the way I suggested in 2007 as it is one of the more precocious and accessible of the Harlan Estate wines to date. A great showing at this retrospective, this wine, which seems like a hypothetical blend of a Pauillac, St.-Estephe and Graves, represents around 1,500 cases from 40 acres of beautifully manicured hillside vineyards overlooking Oakville. Still dense purple to the rim, with notes of creme de cassis, charcoal, blackberry and sweet toast, the wine is full-bodied and voluptuously textured with the tannins largely resolved. But the density and richness suggest this wine can go a long, long way, even though the window for drinking it seems open and inviting already. A world-class, first-growth wine if there ever was one from Napa, this is simply an exquisite Harlan Estate that has atypically reached mid to late adolescence at the age of ten. That is great given the fact that these are 30- to 40-year wines – possibly even half-century wines. Drink it over the next 30 years. Apr 2014, www.robertparker.com