Perfection

How do you improve on perfection? I'll get to it... the 1999 Domaine Louis Latour Corton-Grancy was a nice start. Very "fruity" - as fruity as Grand Cru Burgundy can be, anyway. Not a lot of delineated earth, just very clean - almost too clean for my liking. Onto the others... 2002 Cakebread Reserve Chardonnay, Napa Valley... just not my style at all. I personally would never drink it. Ever. Ok... onto the highlites. The 1995 Haut-Brion was exceptional. Classic power and elegance that only Haut Brion gives... Cedary, showing just hints of cigar box and other maturing notes. This wine has a long, long life ahead of it. Unfortunately, it is simply nothing compared to the 2001 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine. This is now the Cabernet-based wine that all others that ever cross my lips will have to compete against. I wrote about this wine a few weeks ago and it was even better the second, albeit last (hopefully not!) time around as this was our last bottle. Simply perfection. Hopefully someday I will be fortunate enough to have a bottle in my cellar. Until then I will continue to relive the smell and taste of the greatest Cabernet-based wine I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. All this from a self-proclaimed Francophile! Better than the 1982 Latour, 1982 Mouton, and yes, I would even argue with the 1961 Latour. The only question I have is, how much can this wine improve? Every other producer around the world should look at Bill Harlan and shake their heads. The rest of the world shouldn't be chasing Petrus, Cheval Blanc or Latour - it should be chasing Harlan Estate. Read my tasting notes from before... I won't repeat. Notice that I stopped short of proclaiming this the greatest wine I've ever had... Yup. #2.