Wine Store

The unrushed extravagance of the 2016 growing season finds full expression in this Hexameter. Opulent notes of Rainier cherry, violets, fresh blackberry, and plum mingle serenely with aromas of dark chocolate, molasses and pencil shavings.

Planted in 1999, Levy & McClellan is a project by Bob Levy, who has been at Harlan Estate since its beginning, and by Martha McClellan, who is winemaker for Sloan and Checkerboard.

From above, this patchwork of vineyards between St. Helena and Calistoaga really resembles a checkerboard. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, barrel fermented, pressed, and then put back in a new barrel to mellow.

The bedrock is schistous: the same rock that underlies the Port vineyards of the Douro further downstream.

Tasted at the château, the 2005 Chateau d’Yquem delivers a similar performance as last year. Lucid in colour, the bouquet is detailed with very pure honey, vanilla and almond scents, still a little new oak to be fully assimilated but demonstrating superb focus.

The 2013 Cariad Proprietary Red Wine, a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc and 9% Petit Verdot, shows great intensity, with a slightly more burning ember and scorched earthiness to it, giving it a more Graves-like character compared to the purity of the Tychson Hill.

Great concentration and a previously unseen quantity of tannins characterized the wines, which possessed extraordinary aromatic intensity, freshness and precision.

The 2009 Haut-Brion is deep garnet colored and slightly closed and shy to begin, slowly unfurling to reveal sensuous notions of warm blackberries, plum preserves, mulberries and blackcurrant cordial with touches of star anise, mocha and damp soil.