Eden property is located on a small knoll at the edge of an alluvial fan that comes down the west side of Pritchard Hill extending to the valley floor in Oakville. Moderate and integrated tannins anchor a fairly long finish. The palate is juicy, and mouthwatering with a rounded mouth feel. Initially it offers dark fruit, liqueur, tobacco and as it opens notes of cedar and mocha. Immediately the bouquet shows a quality that we sometimes refer to as a “smoky elegance”. This is the newest entry into the BOND portfolio with a first vintage dating back to 2006.Ģ011 BOND Quella. The vineyard is geologically intriguing it sits on an uplifted riverbed nearby soils have eroded down over millions of years leaving plenty of alluvial cobble as well as white volcanic ash along with reddish volcanic soils underneath. Quella is a German word for aquifers or spring water this perfectly ties into this specific vineyard location as geographically it sits in an area known as Spring Valley not far from Joseph Phelps Winery. Red fruit shows mid palate through to the finish, anchored by chalky tannins which linger for some time. There is mouthwatering acidity as soon as it hits the front of the palate. The 2011 BOND Melbury shows an elegant bouquet with appealing aromas of red currant and raspberry. The vineyard is notable for being on the hillside, yet its soils are generally a compressed clay. Along with Vecina, this was the first vineyard in the BOND portfolio. The vineyard is located opposite to Pritchard Hill not far from Lake Hennessy. Melbury is named after a historic district in London and is where the owners of this vineyard live for much of the year. It was a year that was raining all the way through early June (remember the weather during the Napa Valley Wine Auction that year?), delivered a cool summer and early rains during harvest. And a number of hillside vineyards (especially from the mid valley to the north on the eastern side) combined with smart vineyard management practices produced some stellar wines. And rightly so for some wines, but for many other vineyards, 2011 was a fine vintage. This year was a challenging vintage for many in Napa Valley and a year that received less accolades than most Napa vintages. When Corey offered to taste us on either their 2009 or 2011 bottlings we immediately chose the 2011 for a variety of reasons. And that is just for one of the five wines. Cory mentioned that in just one of these vineyards they picked 17 different times during one harvest – which remarkably equates to 17 different vinifications in the winery. Attention to detail in both management during the growing season and when to harvest are paramount. Each of these small vineyard’s range in size from 7-11 acres. Usually, they will manage a vineyard for 5-7 years before the fruit is incorporated into their portfolio. BOND then manages the vineyard with their own in-house vineyard management team. Rather each vineyard involves a unique partnership between BOND and the owner. These hillside vineyards are located in both the Vaca and Mayacamas mountain ranges.īOND does not simply purchase grapes from each of these vineyards. These vineyards were hand selected and evaluated over a number of years before becoming part of their portfolio not all five were present out the outset. Today five premium vineyards are under the BOND portfolio. His wine education and interest came early on – from friends in the valley with last names such as Wagner and Mondavi. Helena and as he says, “I did not come very far down the road” – referring to BOND’s location in nearby Oakville. Winemaker Cory Empting has been with BOND since 2000 soon after graduating from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo with a degree in viticulture. They were able to keep several of these premium vineyards after Merryvale was sold. At the time Merryvale worked with around 60 vineyards in the valley ultimately Bob recognized several vineyards that stood out from the rest based on quality of site.Īfter Bill sold Merryvale, both he and Bob pursued a vision in which they would work together to create an estate built around select vineyards in Napa Valley and none of which would be under their ownership, but all would be farmed by their own vineyard team – rather than by the owners of each vineyard. This story begins when founder Bill Harlan owned Merryvale Winery in St. BOND is physical winery, yet more importantly, BOND is a philosophy of creating premium wines from a single variety (Cabernet Sauvignon) from ‘grand cru’ site specific Napa Valley vineyards.
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