Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
Reviewer, Antonio Galloni - Lisa Perrotti-Brown - 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.
Wine Enthusiast
This is very great Harlan. It pours dark and saturated, and the tannins are big and sturdy, not aggressive, but sweet and finely ground. Still, they give a hardness to the immaculately ripe fruit that mandates cellaring. The flavors of currants, blackberries, plums, chocolate and cedar are lush, deep and long-lasting, but just a part of the balanced appeal of this young wine. It really defines the exquisite tension between power and elegance. Best after 2008, then for many years.
Wine Spectator
Starts out closed, but very intense and concentrated, with tight currant, spice, cedar, anise and blackberry flavors. Maintains a long, vibrant finish.
Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate
The 2004 Harlan Estate is probably the most precocious and accessible Harlan Estate that this perfectionist team has made. Already compelling, the wine has notes of roasted coffee, charcoal, blackberry, spring flowers, and some background sweet, toasty notes. Dense, fleshy, exuberant, even flamboyant by the standards of Bill Harlan, this wine exhibits no jaggedness or rough edges, has relatively high tannins, but they melt away on the palate. The wine is sensationally well-endowed, long, and rich – a tour de force in winemaking. They can do no wrong at Harlan, and it is obvious, even in the most challenging vintages such as 1998, that this estate is a true grand cru/first growth, making wines of irrefutable world-class quality. Of course, none of this comes cheap, as the price is now moving up into the league with Screaming Eagle, but there are no shortage of takers.
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