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Posted on 07/02/2006 7:59:27 AM PDT by NautiNurse
> snip
Today, the 65-year-old Mr. Harlan has a business to be proud of. His Harlan Estate wines, at $265 a bottle, have won perfect 100-point ratings from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate newsletter. Oenophiles add their names to multiyear waiting lists and snap up the wines at auction.
But Mr. Harlan's broader passion is what he calls his "200-year plan." Crafted over several decades and consisting of handwritten notes on hundreds of legal pads, the plan analyzes Europe's venerable wine families in an attempt to distill the secrets of dynastic longevity.
There are notes from weeks he spent at the Rothschild family's vineyards in France, jottings from his time with the Frescobaldi family that has produced wine in Italy for 700 years and musings from visits to the aristocratic Antinoris, an Italian family whose wine business spans six centuries.
Other yellow pads contain lessons from what he considers dynastic failures, including the Robert Mondavi family's sudden loss of control over its wine empire. "I think of them as notes to my grandchildren," he says.
But before he can communicate his wishes to any future heirs, Mr. Harlan must win over his own children, both teenagers setting out to pursue their own dreams.
> snip
In the midst of rapid consolidation and increasing competition, only two of the U.S. industry's big wine companies are family business dynasties. The privately-held E&J Gallo Winery, based in Modesto, Calif., is run by three generations of Gallo family members.
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Some 70% of family businesses in the U.S. don't make it past the second generation, estimates John A. Davis, chairman of Harvard Business School's Families in Business program. Most are doomed by poor succession planning, squabbling heirs or bad luck, he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
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Just goes to show there is a market for super-premium products. $265 is out of my price range but my hat's off to this guy.
I was struck by his 200 year business plan written on yellow legal pads.
I'll have to note my good fortune in getting invited to a friend's "drain the cellar" party this evening, in advance of their retirement and move late in the year.
OK folks,Needless to say, I am ready for this event!
Are you ready to help us explore the mysteries of our wine cellar on Sunday July 2, at 5 p.m?
Here are some of the wines we'll be opening:
1970 Chateau Lafite
1975 Chateau Haut Brion
1982 Cos D'Estournel
1982 Lynch Bages
...and who knows what else I'll find.
A wine-appropriate cold supper will be served and the pool will be open for sobering dips.
See you all then.
They could've used a few yellow note pads at Maytag about ten years ago.
Well, if it's acid-free paper, it might last longer than many types of data media.
Wow! Great friends! (What's the address? I won't tell anybody else).
p.s. Prolly best to keep the notes away from the swimming pool...
After a tour a couple years ago of several recommended Napa wineries (Silver Oak, Groth, Heitz, Stag's Leap, Rombauer, Duckhorn, and a couple others), I made the observation that I could go through the rest of life drinking nothing but Napa cabernets in the $50 and up range. Unfortunately, were I to do that, I would die early a pauper.
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.
If he adopts ME, I'll promise to forward the family traditions!
I have a sneaking suspicion he's being inundated by offers to join the family since the article was published.
I just tried some of their chard for the first time last week, and I must say I prefer Rombauer's. But I think that's more of a style preference than anything else, the Cakebread was still quite good. Mer Soleil is also excellent. All non-daily drinkers in these parts, I'll note.
He is 65 and has teenage kids??? He needs to start a new business plan that includes legal fees for them...
His eldest, Will, will be a Duke sophomore this fall. He's got places to go and people to see before he would settle down into the family business.
The daughter Amanda is 16yrs old. She's a competitive equestrian, with the 'Whatever, Dad,' attitude.
Wow! Great friends! (What's the address? I won't tell anybody else).
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Just come on over and drain the Boone's Farm out of the bong and drink that, you won't even be able to say great vintage afterwards. In fact you might not be able to move.
Great overall stuff, but in the price range it demands it is more a result of cult status rather than world class grape juice. JMO.
Have been fortunate to try many 100 pt. wines by Parker and others, but alas, sometimes these fall short of the hype.
One would be advised to not take it so serious, you won't get your money's worth; but it's great for capitalism!
My money's on the '82 L-B. Every Cos' I've tried in that range has long faded.
How did the tasting turn out?
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