1999 The Maiden

The key to the success of this estate may be owner Bill Harlan's unhurried approach to making great wine. Although the Harlan Estate red wine appeared to some to have been an overnight sensation when the first vintage (1990) was released back in 1996, Harlan and his team had already vinified nine or ten crops from his hillside site above Oakville. And the core team of Harlan, winemaker Bob Levy, vineyard manager Jerry Schlink and director Don Weaver had been together since 1985 (Michel Rolland has consulted here since 1989). Harlan Estate's newest project, involving a half-dozen hillside vineyards stretching from Oakville to St. Helena, actually dates back to the early '90s. As of this March, Harlan planned to release one or more vintages of wine from at least two of these properties in 2003, using proprietary names to give him the flexibility to include a small percentage of fruit from outside the core vineyard if it will result in an even better wine.

The best estates are willing to take draconian measures in difficult years in order to make wines up to their standards, and Harlan Estate was ruthless in 1998. In a typical year, this estate shoots for a yield of just two tons per acre. But when the 1998 veraison took place between September 7 and 10, or 30 to 40 days later than average, the team eliminated one of two clusters per shoot (a $1.5 million decision, notes Harlan), ultimately bringing in just 0.9 tons per acre in a harvest that lasted until November 11 (there was a major rainstorm the next day). Still, notes winemaker Bob Levy, the berry seeds were not completely ripe, and the wine thus spent "only" 25 days on its skins, as he did not want to extract green tannins (in contrast, maceration lasted 45 days in '97). "We didn't get great concentration by our standards, but we were able to make a ripe wine without green character," he added. There will be just 1,000 cases of wine, less than half of normal production. The '99 harvest also ended in early November, but the flowering was two weeks earlier than in the previous year, and the fruit enjoyed longer hang time and more thorough ripening.