BOND: A Complete Retrospective 

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | NOVEMBER 9, 2017 

This historic retrospective of five verticals going back to BOND's inaugural 1999 vintage was the most comprehensive tasting ever staged at the estate and the first time the Harlan family had opened all of the BOND wines in one sitting. The entire Harlan family, along with the teams at Harlan Estate and BOND, were present for this truly once in a lifetime look back at their work spanning three decades.

This is also the first large-scale retrospective my colleague Steve Tanzer and I have done together and the first time Vinous is publishing parallel notes from both of us for the same wines tasted at the same time. I hope readers will enjoy reading and comparing our notes. For more historical background on BOND, readers may enjoy revisiting Steve’s article A Bond Extravaganza.

The BOND team, from left to right: Vineyard Manager Ely McElroy, Winemaker Cory Empting, Director of Winegrowing Bob Levy, Vineyard Manager Mary Maher, Estate Director Don Weaver, Bill Harlan, Debbie Harlan, Amanda Harlan, Will Harlan. Not pictured: Sales Director Scott Gould.

A Few Observations 

Following the arc of evolution for the five wines in the BOND portfolio from inception to the present day was fascinating and yielded numerous insights. It is important to note that a number of the BOND wines have relatively short track records and were made from what were very young vines at the outset. Perhaps because of that, vineyard signatures are not always well defined in the early BONDs. 

A significant stylistic shift is also quite evident from the first vintages to the present day. Bill Harlan and Director of Winegrowing Bob Levy attribute this mostly to an increase in the age of vines over time, which, among other things, allows for more even ripening of tannin and lowers the need for irrigation. But there is more to it than that. Yields today are not as excessively low as they were in the past, and, in general, the wines are made in a less extracted style than was in vogue in the late 1990s and early 2000s. A good example is the 2007 Melbury, a wine with quite a bit of tannin that will likely never fully soften. To be fair, though, I imagine that a similar trajectory of development would be found in many wines around the world when comparing styles of the 1990s and 2000s to today.

The BOND tasting room, Oakville

Melbury and Quella are always presented first at BOND. Because of that, those wines are sometimes easy to overlook in favor of St. Eden and Vecina, which are much showier when they are young. As it turns out, Melbury in particular has thus far proven to age quite gracefully and evenly. St. Eden, always one of the more seductive, alluring wines in its youth, appears to have a narrower window of peak drinkability than I expected. 

Among recent wines, the 2013s and 2010s confirm the stature of their respective vintages. The wines are simply phenomenal. I am not entirely surprised by the 2011s, as I spent quite a bit of time in Napa Valley that fall and saw first hand how better sites and diligent producers coped with the challenges of the growing season. Now, a few years later, the quality of the vintage and its wines is pretty evident. The 2009s are also impressive for their silkiness, suppleness and sheer appeal. Two thousand six is another outsider vintage that has turned out better than originally expected. On the other hand, the 2012s are largely underwhelming given the supposed reputation of the year. The wines are certainly very fine, but they are also bland and don’t offer the visceral thrill of the truly great BOND wines and vintages.