The rest of the evening..........

[brappy]

OK, if you haven't read my note in the bordeaux section, start there and return to this one...... if you want.

At the end of a busy evening (Valentines Day), some co-workes and I decided to have a bite to eat and taste a bottle of wine. By co-workers, I mean the owner, general manager, chef, and myself. We opened a bottle of Harlan Estate Cab '02. I had some more work to do in the office so I decanted the wine an hour before we were to sit. Still, when we sat down, the wine had not opened up. But about fifteen minutes later, the wine started showing its stuff. The nose is full of red fruits, touch of black fruits and some eucalyptus. The palate has much of the same, add some pork fat and a touch of dirt. Awhile later, the wine was singing. Harlan is an interesting wine in that it resembles and old style with incredible balance and purity of fruit. However it also has a richness that resembles new world wines. Having tasted a few of the older Harlan vintages, I realize we committed infanticide, but this was a real treat. This wine will easily last twenty years but I believe, because of the almost perfect balance and intense fruit, the wine could last much longer. Fifty years?

I arrived home at 12:45am and on the thirty minute drive home, I couldn't get the taste of wine off my palate or out of my mind. I needed to open another bottle. My wife was tired and decided to go to bed. I was alone for this one. And here I sit typing this while I taste/drink a bottle of Stewart Cab Sauv '04 Napa Valley. The nose has great red and black fruit, some barnyard earth, and a touch of spice. The palate exhibits much of the same but not so much of the barnyard earth. This wine is extremely full-bodied and incredibly rich. The right materials were used for this wine, as it has all the stuffing of a great wine. This wine has much more body than the Harlan but the balance isn't quite as exact. But then again, this wine is way too young to fully tell.

When I recieved this bottle as a gift, the wine had not even been released. Bottled, but not released. It's lacking a lable. There is a sticker on it with the name and the year and a phone number of which, I'm assuming, belongs to the winery. I've now had the last two vintages of this wine and can't recommend this enouph. Great wine; I won't be going to bed without finishing this.

Anyway, another day at work.............

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