2006 BOND St. Eden

Dark red-ruby. Reticent but pure aromas of dark berries, tobacco and iron. Plummy and concentrated on the palate, showing a slight medicinal reserve. Not hugely expansive but has the energy for further positive evolution in bottle. This wine was seriously tannic and clenched in the way of a young port shortly after the bottling but is developing a bit faster than I would have predicted.

From the valley floor vineyard in Oakville, the 2006 St. Eden has shed some of its tannic clout of last year and taken on a generously endowed style, with stunning black fruits, roasted herbs, sweet cassis, graphite and new oak. Fleshy and even opulent (an anomaly for a 2006), this is an impressively endowed Cabernet Sauvignon to drink over the next 25 years. To reiterate what I have written in the past, Bond is the world-class project of Harlan Estates owner Bill Harlan. It is a simple concept—take 20+-year leases on some of the finest vineyard sites in all of Napa Valley, bring in your own winemaker (the well-known Bob Levy, along with Michel Rolland in the background) and produce these single-vineyard wines, with the stuff considered not good enough culled out and blended together into their second wine, called Matriarch. All of these wines are aged for nearly two years in 100% new French oak and bottled with no fining or filtration. They are all meant for 25 or even possibly 35+ years of aging. There are now five separate vineyards in the Bond portfolio. Quella comes from a 10-acre vineyard in Spring Valley near Howell Mountain, planted on volcanic white ash called tufa. The St. Eden comes from a valley floor vineyard in the Oakville corridor. Melbury is from Pritchard Hill, overlooking Lake Hennessy, Vecina a east-facing hillside neighbor to Harlan Estate, and Pluribus a Spring Mountain vineyard overlooking St. Helena. The 2006s, which seemed tannic and unevolved last year, have put on weight, elegance, and for the most part, showed in the upper point ranges I gave them last year from barrel.

Good medium ruby. Aromas of blackberry, crushed blueberry and menthol; a bit reminiscent of a very young vintage port. Then powerful, thick and deep, with chewy flavors of blueberry and minerals. Finishes with big, tongue-clenching tannins and superb length. Quite primary today and in need of at least several years of cellaring.