California Under Pressure

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for the Dec. 15, 2002 issue

See Also
California Takes on the World
What's Behind the Bottle Price?
Restaurant Wrangling

With the boom times over, high-priced wines are stacking up

Tim Fish
Issue: December 15, 2002

Bill Harlan leans over a yellow legal pad to sketch out the economics of his particular brand of winemaking. Harlan, in his office at Meadowood Resort in St. Helena, Calif., can offer many reasons why he priced his 1998 Harlan Estate, one of Napa Valley's most expensive and most scarce Cabernet Sauvignons, at $175 a bottle (the 1999, to be released next spring, is priced at $250 a bottle).