2017 Booker Harvey & Harriet

The 2017 Red Blend is made up of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, 6% Petite Sirah, 5% Malbec and 4% Petit Verdot aged in 80% new French oak. It gives up wonderful crème de cassis, chocolate mint, kirsch, blackberry and black cherry jam aromas with a classy frame of vanilla and sweet baking spices plus sparks of graphite, cedar, flowers and tobacco leaf. The medium to full-bodied, silky palate features rich, plush, meaty black fruits with firm but finely woven tannins and just enough juicy freshness to lift the long, layered finish. This is great! It deserves more time in bottle, but it's drinking wonderfully straight out of the gate. 2,945 cases produced.

Named after winemaker Eric Jensen's parents, the 2017 Harvey and Harriet is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah, and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec. It offers a richer, powerful style as well as Napa Cabernet-like notes of black and blue fruits, scorched earth, crushed rocks, and violets. Rich, full-bodied, beautifully concentrated, and voluptuous on the palate, it's more approachable than the flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, but I wouldn't bet against it aging just as long. The My Favorite Neighbor releases are made by Eric Jensen and there are two cuvees, the Harvey and Harriet and the flagship My Favorite Neighbor. The Harvey and Harriet release is named after Jensen’s parents and includes small amounts of Syrah, Petit Verdot, Malbec. It’s made to be the more black-fruited, richer, more powerful wine in the lineup. The My Favorite Neighbor is more Cabernet Sauvignon dominated, and it’s the more elegant, red-fruited wine of the duo, yet it never lacks for fruit or richness. Both are brilliant wines, and as I wrote in one of the reviews, they would cost 2-3 times their going rate if they were from Napa Valley.