2007 BOND Melbury

Bright red-ruby. Very ripe, inviting aromas of plum, tobacco and caramel oak. Wonderfully sweet and deep on the palate, with red and darker berry and plum flavors complicated by spice and mineral elements. Surprising harmonious acidity gives this very rich, large-scaled wine lovely definition and inner-mouth perfume. Finishes with a serious dusting of ripe tannins and superb resounding length. This wine was actually rather tightly coiled when I first tasted it from bottle but even though it boasts terrific reserve for aging, its insidiously suave texture makes it thrilling to taste today.

Bright red-ruby. Very ripe, inviting aromas of plum, tobacco and caramel oak. Wonderfully sweet and deep on the palate, with red and darker berry and plum flavors complicated by spice and mineral elements. Surprising harmonious acidity gives this very rich wine lovely definition and inner-mouth perfume. This big but suave Cabernet finishes with a serious dusting of ripe tannins and superb resounding length. This wine was actually rather tightly coiled when I first tasted it from bottle but even though it boasts terrific subtlety and reserve, its insidiously rich texture makes it thrilling to taste today.

Out of bottle, the 2007 Melbury is even more impressive than it was from barrel. Aromas of cedarwood, barbecue spice, licorice, spring flowers, blackcurrants and sweet kirsch jump from the glass of this dense purple-colored wine. A full-bodied texture, wonderful opulence, sweet velvety tannins and an extraordinary integration of all its component parts make for a prodigious Cabernet Sauvignon to drink over the next 25-30+ years. Bond is the extraordinary project of Harlan Estate’s proprietor, Bill Harlan. In essence, what he does along with his winemaker, Bob Levy, and his team, is to identify outstanding vineyard sites in specific viticultural regions of Napa Valley, sign the owners to long-term (20 years) leases, and produce essentially 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines from these sites. As I have written in the past, all of these offerings represent world-class Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa meant to endure 30 or more years of cellaring should one have the patience to wait that long. There are five separate vineyard sites in the Bond portfolio. Melbury comes off steep slopes just north of Lake Hennessy, east of Rutherford. It is a seven-acre hillside vineyard planted in compressed clay and sedimentary soils. The Pluribus (which I have mistakenly referred to as E Pluribus in some past reviews) comes from a high elevation (over 1,000 feet) site on Spring Mountain on the west side of Napa Valley. The northern-most parcel in the Bond portfolio, it is a seven-acre vineyard planted in pure tufa volcanic bedrock. The most southernly situated vineyard is Vecina, which is the nearby neighbor of Harlan Estate. These are western hillsides of Napa Valley overlooking the Oakville Corridor to the north and Yountville to the south. It is an 11-acre parcel planted at an elevation of 200-330 feet. St. Eden is the only valley floor vineyard. It is composed of 11 acres just north of the Oakville Crossroad planted in gentle foothills. The Quella vineyard is a nine-acre site in the eastern foothills of St. Helena planted on an old alluvial riverbed of cobble and rocks intermixed with the white tufa soils of volcanic origin. All the 2007s have been bottled after receiving essentially the same time in barrel, usually in excess of two years (the same as the Harlan Estate cuvée). The 2008s were all tasted from barrel.