The vineyard closest to the great Harlan Estate is Vecina, situated in the western foothills on the Oakville Crossroad overlooking the valley. From this 11-acre site, the 2003 Vecina comes closest in style to Harlan Estate, appearing like a hypothetical blend of a St. Estephe and Pauillac. A formidable wine, it reveals plenty of new saddle leather, creme de cassis, scorched earth and volcanic-like characteristics in addition to notes of blackberries, Chinese black tea and graphite. Powerful, intense and backward, it needs 2-5 years of bottle age and should last for two decades thereafter. It is a tour de force in winemaking!

More difficult to evaluate than its siblings, the 2003 Vecina, which comes from a site near Harlan Estate, is a firm, tannic, backward wine displaying a gravelly, scorched earth, hot rock, black currant, licorice, and herb-scented bouquet. In the mouth, it is tight, rich, and ruggedly constructed with medium to full body as well as a boatload of tannin. Give it 4-5 years of cellaring, and consume it over the following 15. Previously recommended: 2002 Matriarch (90), 2002 Melbury (96), 2002 St. Eden (95), 2002 Vecina (95+).Tel. 707.944.9445, Fax. 707.944.9554, Email info@bondestates.com

The vineyard closest to the great Harlan Estate is Vecina, situated in the western foothills on the Oakville Crossroad overlooking the valley. From this 11-acre site, the 2003 Vecina comes closest in style to Harlan Estate, appearing like a hypothetical blend of a St. Estephe and Pauillac. A formidable wine, it reveals plenty of new saddle leather, creme de cassis, scorched earth and volcanic-like characteristics in addition to notes of blackberries, Chinese black tea and graphite. Powerful, intense and backward, it needs 2-5 years of bottle age and should last for two decades thereafter. It is a tour de force in winemaking! The single vineyard wines represent Bill Harlan’s concept of offering single vineyard, micro-climate/terroir-based wines from distinctive sectors of Napa Valley. Tel. (707) 944-1441

From a vineyard just adjacent to the Oakville estate comes this wonderfully earth-scented wine. Deep and brooding, the aromas bring to mind a walk through a forest. Now a whiff of bay laurel, then pine cone and a rich, mulchy humus, and hovering over all are ripe blackberries and oodles of caramelized new oak. Much more open at this point in its life than the ’02, but should live for many years. ——S.H.(2/1/2007)—— 96