FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 25
Harlan Estate 2016
A real estate developer set out in 1984 to build a California first growth on a 200-year plan, and three decades later his hillside above Oakville produced a vintage that four major critics scored a perfect 100.
- Maker
- Harlan Estate
- By price in wine
- 36 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Harlan Estate, Oakville, Napa Valley, California
- Wine
- Harlan Estate Proprietary Red, 2016, the estate's flagship blend
- Founded
- 1984, by H. William (Bill) Harlan; first vintage 1990
- Grapes
- A Bordeaux-style blend led by Cabernet Sauvignon, with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot
- Site
- Volcanic hillside soils in the western hills of Oakville, vineyards at roughly 325 to 525 feet
- Winemaker
- Cory Empting, director of winegrowing since 2008
- Vintage
- Napa's fifth strong Cabernet year in a row, with small crops and no major heat spikes
- Critics
- 100 points from Wine Advocate, James Suckling, Jeb Dunnuck and Decanter
- Price
- $1,600 a bottle, as reported in April 2021
A first growth, planned in centuries
Harlan Estate sits in the western hills of Napa Valley, inside the Oakville AVA, on the eastern side of the Mayacamas Mountains. The whole property covers about 240 acres, most of it oak woodland and conifer forest, shaped like a horseshoe that loops around to the south. The estate climbs from about 225 to 1,225 feet in elevation, and the vines sit between roughly 325 and 525 feet in a band Bill Harlan named 'The Tenderloin,' on soils of volcanic origin.
The ambition was stated from the start: to make a 'first growth' of California, a wine that could stand with the classified estates of Bordeaux. Harlan described it as a 200-year plan. In 1984 he, Ric Forman and David Abreu identified six acres of wooded hillside above Oakville as land that could make first-class wine, and in 1985 Harlan began planting, with about 2.5 acres put under vine on land that had never grown grapes.
Small-scale winemaking began in 1987. The 1987, 1988 and 1989 wines were never released. The first commercial vintage, 1990, was not sold until 1996. Plantings were extended in 2002 and 2004. Sources describe the finished vineyard differently: most put it at about 40 acres, the estate's own description says nearly forty acres, and a 2021 Wine Spectator report gave 33 acres of estate vines. The estate says its plantings are about 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot, though the finished wine is always led by Cabernet Sauvignon.
Bill Harlan and the team that stayed
Bill Harlan was born in 1940 and grew up in Whittier, outside Los Angeles. He played water polo at the University of California, Berkeley, parked cars and played cards to make ends meet, and graduated in 1963. After traveling from Morocco to the Cape of Good Hope, he turned to business: real estate at Lake Tahoe from 1973, then his own firm, Pacific Union, which converted condominiums and later developed San Francisco's Opera Plaza. In 1979 he bought Meadowood, a struggling country club, and turned it into a resort.
Over lunch, Robert Mondavi offered him introductions to the leading estates of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Harlan made the trip in the summer of 1980 and came home convinced that the best European wines came from slopes, so he looked only at hillsides. He worked with winemaker Bob Levy from the early 1980s, and Don Weaver, later the estate's director, joined in 1986. The French consultant Michel Rolland advised on the early vintages.
Continuity is part of the house style. Levy led winegrowing for decades before Cory Empting took over the role in 2008. Empting dry-farms the vineyard and created a 'vinemasters' program in which veteran vineyard workers take responsibility for a block of vines, in the estate's words, for the rest of their lives. In April 2021, at 80, Bill Harlan named his son Will managing director of the family's wineries, including Harlan Estate, BOND and Promontory, and stayed on as founder and chairman; Empting was promoted to managing director of winegrowing. (One account dates the decision to March 2020, with the public announcement in April 2021.)
2016 in Napa
For Napa Cabernet, 2016 extended a run of exceptional years to five in a row. A wet, rainy winter ended a long drought, and the growing season was warm without the extreme heat spikes the valley is known for. Chuck Wagner of Caymus said the season had 'none of the terrific heat spikes our valley is known for,' which held back stress on the vines.
Crops were small. The consultant Celia Welch reported fewer clusters per vine and lighter clusters, about a 20 percent drop from expected yields. Hot spells alternated with cooler runs, so fruit ripened in waves, and some growers used shade cloth for the first time to protect the grapes. September was good, and most of the crop was in before one of the wettest Octobers in decades ended the harvest.
At Harlan, the 2016 is a blend of the estate's own blocks, as every vintage is. Across the estate's wines, one tasting of all vintages from 1990 to 2016 described them as Bordeaux blends of about 15% alcohol, averaging about 75% Cabernet Sauvignon. Each year's blend is built from as many as 150 separate wines drawn from vineyard samples, tanks and barrels.
Four perfect scores
The 2016 drew some of the highest marks the estate has received. Lisa Perrotti-Brown of Wine Advocate gave it 100 points in September 2019, describing a wine 'built like a brick house' that was set to live 'a good 60 years and possibly more.' James Suckling followed with 100 in December 2019, asking whether it was 'the most refined, harmonious and focused Harlan ever.'
Jeb Dunnuck scored it 100 in January 2020, writing that in a great vintage the estate had 'made a perfect wine,' and Decanter's Jonathan Cristaldi gave it 100 in June 2023. Antonio Galloni of Vinous rated it 98+ in January 2020, calling it 'a fabulous example of the Harlan Estate of today, an era in which finesse is just as prized as intensity.' Wine Spectator's score was 97.
In December 2024 the Robb Report published a list of the 50 greatest Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons of the 21st century so far, retasting the 2016 that year for it. Wikipedia describes the magazine as having called the 2016 'the greatest Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon of the Century'; in the list as updated in November 2025, it ranks fourth.
Price, provenance and the bottle
Harlan has always priced itself as a statement. Its first release, the 1990 and 1991 vintages offered to a mailing list in a letter Bill Harlan signed in December 1995, cost $65 a bottle, ten dollars more than Opus One, then considered California's top wine. Director Don Weaver later called it 'the most courageous price we ever charged.' By April 2021 Wine Spectator reported the 2016 priced at $1,600 a bottle.
On the secondary market, an 11-bottle lot of the 2016 in original wooden cases sold at auction in Beverly Hills on September 24, 2021, for $14,760. A U.S. retail listing in 2026 asked $1,549.99 a bottle.
The estate typically makes about 2,000 cases a year (one profile says 2,000 bottles, which conflicts with every other source), sold in about 50 countries. To fight counterfeits, since 2004 Harlan bottles have carried a sequential serial number and a random number tied to an RFID chip, which buyers can check on the estate's website. The engraved label took about ten years to design, overseen by a retired U.S. Treasury engraver, Herb Fichter, and was meant, Harlan said, for a bottle that 'would sit on a table in candlelight, not on a store shelf.'
The numbers
- Estate
- About 240 acres, mostly forest and oak woodland
- Vineyard
- About 40 acres by most accounts; one 2021 report says 33 acres
- Plantings
- About 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot (estate description)
- Typical production
- About 2,000 cases a year (one source says 2,000 bottles)
- Wine Advocate
- 100 (Lisa Perrotti-Brown, September 2019)
- James Suckling
- 100 (December 2019)
- Jeb Dunnuck
- 100 (January 2020)
- Decanter
- 100 (Jonathan Cristaldi, June 2023); 98 in an earlier review (March 2021)
- Vinous
- 98+ (Antonio Galloni, January 2020)
- Wine Spectator
- 97
Timeline
H. William (Bill) Harlan is born; he grows up in Whittier, California.
Harlan buys Meadowood in Napa Valley and turns it into a resort.
With introductions from Robert Mondavi, Harlan tours the great estates of Bordeaux and Burgundy.
Harlan Estate is founded on wooded hillside land above Oakville.
Planting begins, with about 2.5 acres of vines.
Small-scale winemaking begins; the 1987-1989 wines are never released.
First commercial vintage.
Bill Harlan signs the first letter to the mailing list, offering the 1990 and 1991 at $65 a bottle.
A 10-vintage vertical of Harlan magnums sells for $700,000 at the Napa Valley's charity wine auction.
Bottles begin carrying serial numbers linked to RFID chips to deter counterfeits.
Cory Empting becomes director of winegrowing.
The 2016 vintage is harvested in a small-crop year that ends with a very wet October.
Wine Advocate's Lisa Perrotti-Brown scores the 2016 100 points.
Jeb Dunnuck scores it 100; Vinous rates it 98+.
The estate holds a tasting of every vintage from 2016 back to 1990, out of magnum.
Bill Harlan names his son Will managing director; the 2016 is reported priced at $1,600 a bottle.
An 11-bottle lot of the 2016 sells at auction in Beverly Hills for $14,760.
Decanter scores the 2016 100 points.
One bottle of each of the first 30 vintages, 1990-2019, is offered at a charity auction at the Petersen Automotive Museum gala.
The Robb Report names the 2016 among the 50 greatest Napa Cabernets of the 21st century so far; the November 2025 update ranks it fourth.
The world in 2016
Journalists publish the Panama Papers, 11.5 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm.
The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union.
Pokemon Go is released and breaks sales and revenue records.
The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the first Games held in South America.
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.
Donald Trump is elected president of the United States.
Mobile devices pass desktop computers as the main way people worldwide reach the internet.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2021 | $1,600 | Asking price, not a salePrice per bottle for the 2016 vintage, as reported by Wine Spectator. |
| Oct 2026 | $1,550 | Asking price, not a saleU.S. retail listing, per 750ml bottle; shown out of stock. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Harlan Estate 2016 is number 36 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (25 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Harlan made wine in 1987, 1988 and 1989 but never released it; the estate still holds those vintages.
- The first Harlan release cost $65 a bottle, deliberately $10 more than Opus One, California's benchmark at the time.
- Harlan's engraved label took about ten years to design and was overseen by a retired U.S. Treasury engraver.
- Since 2004 every bottle has carried a serial number tied to an RFID chip that buyers can verify online.
- Veteran vineyard workers at Harlan can be named 'vinemasters' and given a block of vines to tend for the rest of their working lives.
- Jancis Robinson has called Harlan Estate one of the ten best wines of the twentieth century.
- One collector, Bruce Meyer, had a bottle of every vintage since 1990 cellared at the winery itself, a privilege Harlan says it extended to no one else.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026