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100 WA. "The 2013 Pluribus is the finest wine I’ve tasted from this vineyard to date, capturing the vintage’s extraordinary purity and richness, with a multidimensional mouthfeel and incredible notes of blue and black fruits, charcoal, graphite and white flowers. This profound effort should hit its prime in another 5-10 years and evolve for 30-40 or more. The five separate single vineyards that Bill Harlan has under long-term contract continue to perform at first growth quality levels. They generate between 500 and 600 cases of these single-vineyard wines that all represent distinctive and separate micro-climates of Napa Valley. The culled out barrels that don’t make the cut are blended together for a wine called Matriarch, which in itself is a terrific offering. Last year I touted the brilliance and drama of the 2012s, which are strikingly beautiful, and the otherworldly 2013s, but now we have the fruit-forward and luscious 2014s, and although I didn’t taste them, I suspect the 2015s will reach a new qualitative pinnacle for this extraordinary visionary project of Bill Harlan and his winemaking team, led by Bob Levy." Wine Advocate #227, Oct 2016 |