James speaks with Will Harlan (managing director, Harlan Estate, Bond and Promontory) and Cory Empting (managing director of winemaking, Harlan Estate, Bond and Promontory) about their 2018 vintages. When asked for their preference between the 2018 and 2016, Empting said, “Let’s do that 10-year retrospective and see one day. Right now I am a big fan of the 2018s, but I think the '16 has that extra flesh that tends to age really well – like you see can see how that can age really well. And the ‘18 is a little bit more on the razor’s edge, maybe like ‘89 and ‘90 Bordeaux.'
“But if it follows that perfect razor’s edge, I think in some ways for me it’s more of a benchmark because there’s more difficulty in that. But I think there’s going to be a lot of pleasure with the ‘16s, so we’ll see with time.”
Here are the tasting notes from this week's Weekly Tasting Report on the Bond, Harlan and Promontory wines, which all received perfect 100-point scores from James.
Bond Napa Valley Vecina 2018
Harlan Estate Napa Valley 2018
Promontory Napa Valley 2016
