Through the Grapevine | By Tim Dwight | July 30, 2009
To view the article as it appears in Florida Today, click here: http://www.floridatoday.com/
The sunshine is streaming down from a bright, cloudless sky as we begin our early morning jaunt up to Napa Valley.
We’re departing from Livermore and the Wente Winery, where we’ve enjoyed the hospitality of a fine dinner and some great wines. In particular, one of the “small lot” bottlings, a G-S-M (grenache-syrah-mourvedre) blend from Wente will prove to be one of our trips’ most memorable wines. Probably impossible to find back on the East Coast, but…I’ll do my darndest when I get back.
Now: in the car and back on the freeway; thoughts of yesterday’s horrific traffic still on our mind. Fortunately, it proves much easier heading north behind (to the east) of the large cities that dot the Bay Area. In no time we’re on the 680 breezing past signs for Oakland, Berkeley and the suburban sprawl that reaches out for an hour or so in each direction.Across the Benicia bridge (and a California-esqe $4 one-way toll), then north through Vallejo and finally: Route 29, and a large “Welcome to the Napa Valley” sign.
We’re starting our Napa visit with perhaps the most impressive stop on our itinerary; Harlan winery, located in the western foothills above Oakville.
General Manager Don Weaver has warned us to pay strict attention to the directions that he’s sent; there are no signs or identifying landmarks that’ll lead to their door. Harlan was founded back in the late 80’s by Bill Harlan, and it quickly became the first and foremost of Napa’s cult wineries. There’s a “waiting list” to get on the waiting list to purchase these wines, driven by repeated scores of “100 point” perfection from critics such as the estimable Robert Parker.
Distribution has never been much of an issue, because simply, there isn’t any, unless you’re fortunate enough to have joined the mailing list sometime back in the early 90’s. To be fair, some of the top restaurants in the world manage to receive a small supply, a case here or there, and if you find yourself lucky enough to be dining in one of these hallowed establishments, be prepared to shell out anywhere from $600 to $1000--a bottle--for the Harlan.
This cabernet-based red wine commands top dollar for a good reason: Bill Harlan along with his founding crew of Don Weaver and winemaker Bob Levy have set the goal of achieving perfection—as in those 100 point scores will attest.
“California wines have never been officially classified as they have been back in Bordeaux”, says Weaver, “but our point of reference has always been to establish the equivalent of a ‘first growth’ in the Napa Valley.”
No question you’ve got to invest some serious money to get to that point, and Harlan’s real estate savvy—he founded San Francisco’s Pacific Union Company back in 1985—has provided the wherewithal to achieve their dream.
“We started small, planting the original vines back in ’85 and ‘86”,
Weaver explains, “now we’ve got 240 total acres here, though grapes are only planted on about 40 of them. We’re always looking for the best slopes, the best exposure to the sun.”“The key to success here is no secret”, Weaver says, “low yields, attention to detail, and the privilege of working these hillside vines. Bill Harlan is committed to doing whatever is necessary to produce Napa’s finest Bordeaux-style blends”.
Much of the credit for the success goes to Weaver, an extremely modest sort who has worked with Harlan for over 25 years. “I’m just ‘the back of the horse’ here now” he opines on one hand, but later admits to “having to drink more of this darn wine than anyone else alive”.
Not bad work is you can get it.
Weaver leads my traveling companion and myself on a tour that begins with a bottle of (French) Champagne, enjoyed on a stone patio overlooking the Valley floor below. “That’s the site known as “Martha’s Vineyard” directly below us”, says Weaver; “I was lucky enough to have started my career with old Joe Heitz back in the ‘70s’”.
And indeed, if Harlan set to follow the success of early wineries back in that day, the legendary bottlings of Heitz’s Martha’s Vineyard were a great place to start. I remember staring wistfully at a bottle of the ’74 in a wine store back when it was originally released—and balking at spending the $40 or so it required for purchase.
Times change, and even in these tough economic straits, $40 won’t get you close to the sticker price of a bottle of Napa’s finest.
“Our yields are less than two tons (of grapes) an acre, and even then we use about ½ of the finished juice”, explains Weaver as we tour the cellars. “And these new French (Taransaud) oak barrels go for about $1,200 each. Our cabernet makes up nearly 90% of the finished product, and winemaker Bob Levy uses new oak for all of the wine.”
There are three vintages resting at various stages in the pristine cellars as we continue our tour.
“The strict selection of the finest juice lead us about a dozen years ago to establish a ‘second’ wine, called the ‘Maiden’. According to Weaver, this ensures that only the wineries’ best barrels go into the making of the flagship Harlan.
At the end of our tour, Weaver leads us into the wineries’ library, where we’re able to sample several vintages of the wine. He pours into several large Riedel glasses, and then sets them aside the ‘dump bucket’ that rests on the table.
One glance between my traveling companion and myself; you’ve gotta’ know there was no way a single drop of that wine was ever going in the bucket!
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