The 2004 St. Eden, which comes from a valley floor vineyard in Oakville, is another dead ringer for a great Pauillac, possibly a young Mouton. Dense bluish/purple in color with stunning notes of cedarwood, unsmoked high-quality cigar tobacco, crème de cassis and espresso roast, this wine has fabulous fruit, density and a full-bodied, youthful mouthfeel, wonderful balance and purity, and a terrific finish that goes on for close to a minute. This is also relatively open, but slightly more structured than the Melbury. There’s no sense deferring gratification, so I would suggest drinking it over the next 15-20 years, possibly longer. A brilliant project of Harlan Estates’ proprietor, Bill Harlan, these single-vineyard wines have been everything a Cabernet connoisseur could ever hope for since they were first released. Amazingly, these wines taste better with age than they did young, which is exactly what Harlan and his winemaking team of Bob Levy and consulting enologist Michel Rolland are trying to prove.

The 2004 St. Eden seems to hit all the sweet spots on my palate. A wine of great complexity, richness, and intensity, with oodles of creme de cassis fruit and plenty of roasted herbs and meatiness, with exceptional power and richness, this wine has fleshed out since I had it last year, and seems to be destined to be one of Bond's most compelling wines, a full-bodied wine with great purity, richness, and beautifully integrated acidity, wood, and tannin. Give it 1–3 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 25 years.

Brilliant aromatics here, just stupendously attractive. Among the sweetest and most approachable of Harlan’s current stable, it’s also complex and ageworthy. Fairly tannic now, with a refined sandpapery grittiness coating pure flavors of ripe cherries, plums and blackberries and their associated liqueurs. The finish is so long, balanced and harmonious. It’s hard to imagine that this won’t be one to age 12–15 years.——S.H.(12/1/2007)—— 96