A Bond Extravaganza

BY STEPHEN TANZER | JUNE 20, 2017

A remarkable comprehensive tasting at Bond Estates in March spotlighted the consistently high quality of the Bond wines and brought their distinctive terroir character into sharp relief.

Two thousand seventeen marks the unofficial 20th anniversary of Bill Harlan’s Bond project, which the Bond website describes as “A portfolio of wines that are diverse in their geographic representation and 'grand cru' in quality, all under the umbrella of one philosophy, one team, one mark.” Like Harlan Estate and its owner’s more recent Promontory endeavor, the Bond project grew slowly and organically. A recent comprehensive tasting at Bond in March showcased the portfolio’s consistently stunning quality and made their distinctive site qualities easy to appreciate.

A Brief History of Bond 

Bill Harlan’s first wine venture in Napa Valley was the creation of Merryvale Vineyards with his real estate partners in 1983. In 1984, Harlan purchased the original 40-acre parcel in the western hills of Oakville that became Harlan Estate, then added another 200 adjacent acres over the next couple of years. Merryvale, whose wines were made at Rombauer in the early years, constructed its own winery in St. Helena in time to make the 1989 vintage, the Harlan Estate wine was also made here during its first vintages. From the start, Bob Levy made the Merryvale wines; he was also given winemaking duties at Harlan Estate and subsequently at Bond. Levy still provides guidance to current Winemaker Cory Empting, who began as Levy’s assistant in 2001 and, following a gradual transition, took over winemaking responsibilities in 2008. (Levy continues in his long-time role as Director of Winegrowing.)

While running Merryvale, Harlan had contacted more than 60 Napa Valley growers for fruit, many of them personal friends and business associates. In 1991, Harlan took on Swiss businessman Jack Schlatter as a partner in Merryvale. At that point, in addition to buying fruit from local growers, Harlan declassified some of his own fruit and sold it to Merryvale, where it was used to make a wine called Oakville Grade, which later became The Maiden under the Harlan label. 

Harlan was chiefly interested in making wines of site on an artisanal scale, while Schlatter and Merryvale were moving in the opposite direction and expanding rapidly. Merryvale then bought out Harlan and his partners outright in 1996. Harlan subsequently invited his two favorite Cabernet producers—the owners of the vineyards used to make the Melbury and Vecina wines—to come with him to Oakville and become part of his new Bond project. The first harvest for these wines was in 1997, and the first commercial release was the 1999; from the start, the objective of the Bond project was to demonstrate the diversity and individual character of various top Napa Valley sites. The wines were made, along with the Harlan Estate flagship, at Harlan Estate’s winery on the property. After the harvest of 2000, a new winery was constructed nearby for Harlan Estate, and the old facility became home for the Bond wines. 

Over the next several years, Bond introduced three more wines from among the vineyards it had been working with—and vinifying separately—for years. The first commercial release for St. Eden was 2001, Pluribus was introduced in 2003, and Quella followed in 2006. While Bill Harlan has always viewed Harlan Estate itself as a “Napa Valley first growth,” he came to describe the various Bond sites as grand crus, with the disparate sites vinified at a central facility, as in Burgundy. Long-time Estate Director Don Weaver noted that more than a dozen sites have been seriously considered for the Bond program over the years but added that there was “no urgency to introduce more.”

Vecina

Bond’s Portfolio of Sites

The Bond sites are all located on hillsides. Typically, they are large properties with small gem-like vineyards ranging from 7 to 11 acres in size. Annual production of each of the five crus is generally in the range of 450 to 600 cases. Bond has total viticultural control over its various sites but does not own them; they purchase the fruit under so-called evergreen contracts that renew every year for the following ten years.