The Mascot 2010

The Mascot began early on as an experiment, after talking the family and winemaking team into sparing a few barrels of wine—produced from Harlan Estate's younger vines—to explore a blend of Will Harlan's.

The resulting wines have a higher degree of density and flesh than the previous year, with aromatics more in the vein of dark fruit, spice, and earth. With a more masculine tannin structure—firm, but not dry or rustic—the 2009 will age very well over the next twenty to twenty-five years.

The Mascot is a brand of Harlan Estate, founded in 1984 by William Harlan. It is a winegrowing estate in the western hills of Oakville, California—in the heart of the Napa Valley. It consists of 240 acres of natural splendor set above the fabled Oakville benchlands and forty acres of vineyards planted with cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and petit verdot. The Harlan Estate wine label is a design inspired by a 19th-century engraving which was overseen by retired U.S. Treasury engraver Herb Fichter.