Insane aromas of lavender, blackberries, wet earth and ripe yet fresh fruit. Full body with very deep fruit, pine needles and hints of chocolate and cedar. Very long and wonderfully polished. This has wonderful depth and focus. Release in 2021. Better after 2024.

I was lucky enough to be able to taste a small vertical for this report. Starting with the 2015 Promontory, this is still youthful and unevolved, but wow, it’s nevertheless a brilliant wine. Gorgeous notes of currants, mulberries, and black cherry fruits as well as lots of tapenade and leafy herb notes define the bouquet, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, sweet, polished tannins, and a great finish. It can be enjoyed today but won’t hit prime time for another 3-4 years. It should evolve for decades.

The 2015 Promontory has recently been released in the domestic market and is due for international release in spring 2021. Deep garnet-purple in color, it has sprung to life since I last tasted it, prancing out of the glass with showy red currant jelly, black cherry compote and warm cassis notes plus hints of cinnamon toast, wilted roses, unsmoked cigars and fragrant earth. Full-bodied, the palate is rich and impactful, featuring layer upon layer of red and black fruits with loads of mineral sparks. The structure is rock-solid with firm, rugged tannins that are beginning to come into line with the flamboyant fruit, finishing with great length and a lively lift.

Silky and polished on the surface with a delicious wild and powerful rusticity underneath. This gives lots of intensely ripe red fruit but also concentrated savoury elements - coffee grains, black chocolate, black olives and pencil shavings - that draw you in and sustain interest. Incredibly well made with excellent texture and weight on the palate offering body and length. A serious wine, less focussed on bright acidity but still youthful with clear freshness. A four week harvest saw 54 harvest passes by hand and 40 different vat vinifications - excellent haute-couture winemaking by the Harlan family.

An early, dry year where Napa Valley received 75% of normal rainfall, giving Promontory an advantage with its mountain location (and helped even further by a four week harvest that saw 54 different passes through the vines). Still young even at six years old, rippling with fresh floral aromatics that balance the concentrated powerful olive tapenade, chocolate and liquorice-soaked berry fruits. Intense from the start, with the juicy elegance of slate, damson and cassis-dominant Cabernet Sauvignon that stretches out in the glass. The Harlan family know exactly how to deliver wines with power and punch. First released on the Place de Bordeaux in March 2021, making this my second tasting this year. First vintage 2009, distributed partly through the Place de Bordeaux since the 2012 vintage.

Bright crimson. Young, soaked tea leaves on the nose. Lively and floral. Sweet and polished tannins. Dry finish and very appetising. Tight finish. Wonderfully fresh, despite the drought. (JR)