2010 BOND Pluribus

BOND turned another powerful, compelling Cabernet Sauvignon with the 2010 Pluribus. With time in the glass, the 2010 shows a more delicate and nuanced side to its personality. The natural tension between those opposites is one of the reasons the 2010 is so appealing. Finely cut and focused, the 2010 has more than enough structure to drink well for many years to come.

Saturated medium ruby. Wild scents of blackcurrant, licorice, leather and game. Supple, sweet Cabernet with outstanding texture and depth. Has terrific briary mountain berry intensity and savory minerality but with the somewhat sauvage leathery element carrying through on the palate. There's also a lovely note of violet to add perfume. Finishes with big dusty tannins and hints of tobacco, cedar and leather. Clearly the wildest of the Bond wines in 2010.

The 2010 Pluribus reveals classic notes of blueberry and mulberry fruit intermixed with hints of violets, incense and licorice. The striking aromatics are followed by a full-bodied, dense, supple-textured, multidimensional wine that should drink well for 25-30 years. To quickly summarize this project that has been remarkably successful since the debut vintage, Bond is the project of the visionary Bill Harlan, the proprietor of Harlan Estate. Along with winemaker Bob Levy and consulting enologist Michel Rolland, he continues to sign 20-year leases on highly regarded vineyards planted with 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from which he offers consumers world-class Cabernet Sauvignons that showcase different Napa microclimates/terroirs. In short, there are five separate vineyard sites in the Bond portfolio. The Melbury comes from a seven-acre parcel (sedimentary and clay soils) on steep slopes in the Pritchard Hill area near Lake Hennessey, east of Rutherford. The northern most parcel, the Pluribus comes from a high elevation (1,000 feet) site on Spring Mountain. It, too, is a seven-acre parcel planted in the white volcanic bedrock called tufa. The most southerly situated vineyard is Vecina (11 acres planted at 200- to 330 foot elevation), which is a neighbor of Harlan Estate in the Oakville Corridor, on the western hillsides of Napa. St. Eden, a valley floor vineyard, is composed of 11 acres on gentle foothills just north of the Oakville Crossroads. The Quella Vineyard is a nine-acre site in the eastern foothills of St. Helena with an interesting terroir of alluvial pebbles and small rocks of what is believed to be an old riverbed. White tufa can be found as well. Part of the objective is to vinify these wines in identical manners so that as they age their microclimate/terroir characters become more pronounced. The barrels that are deemed not worthy enough to go into the individual single-vineyard wines are blended into the Matriarch cuvée.