A wonderful evening with BOND

Last month, winery BOND from Napa Valley came to the Netherlands, where a dinner and wine tasting were arranged. The winery organizes these kinds of tastings every so often on location with its importers. The event was actually planned two years ago, but it couldn't take place at the time, for obvious reasons. Fortunately, the event got a green light to finally kick off on Thursday 19 May! Maximilian Kast, the Estate Director of BOND, flew in from sunny California to give us an unforgettable evening at Bistro de la Mer in Amsterdam. The tasting revolved around the new vintage: the excellent year 2018. In this blog, we will take you along on this fantastic tasting and tell you everything you want to know about this unique winery.

First, some history
BOND was founded by H. William Harlan and is based in Oakville, in the middle of Napa Valley. Actually, BOND is not Mr Harlan's first winery. In 1986, he founded the Merryvale winery together with his business partner and not much later he also started a winery under his own name: Harlan Estate. After about 10 years, it was decided to sell off Merryvale and this was the exact moment that the idea for a new winery arose: BOND. The goal was to produce Cabernet Sauvignon wines that best express the versatile terroir of the Napa Valley. Production is limited to just 450-600 cases per cuvée. This amounts to an average of about 6,000 bottles of each wine, of which 85% remains within the borders. This makes the wines very scarce elsewhere in the world. A fact we were very aware of this during this tasting.

BOND’s five wines
At BOND, the quality wines are called grand crus, which is based on the French Cru classification. The portfolio includes five grand cru wines, all of which are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The only difference is the origin of the grapes. Over the years, BOND has worked with as many as 80 different vineyards. Max: “It took us a quarter of a century to find the best vineyards in the Napa Valley”. Eventually, five locations were carefully selected, and we now only use the best plots. Below, you will find a brief summary of the vineyards and their characteristics.

N° 1 Melbury
This plot can be found in the Eastern Hills of Rutherford, where the vines are planted on an old sedimentary rock bed with compacted clay. Clay has the property of retaining water, which is favourable in arid and warm regions such as Napa. The vineyard enjoys the morning sun, so the vines are not in the beaming sunlight during the hottest part of the day and it doesn’t get too hot for the grapes.

N° 2 Quella
The name Quella is derived from the German word for pristine water source. This is an important factor in this terroir. The old riverbed shaped the soil that consists of tuff, rocks, and boulders. The vines love this soil because it is full of minerals and nutrients, and it easily retains heat as well.

N° 3 St. Eden
The composition of this plot was formed by a landslide that happened many centuries ago. The volcanic rock is rich in iron, which enhances the complexity of the wine. The northern location of this vineyard ensures that the grapes are not left in the hot sun for too long.

No. 4 Vecina
Vecina is located in the western hills of Oakville. Oriented to the east, the vines enjoy the morning sun, just like the Melbury vineyard. The soil is characterized by thick rock combined with fine, alluvial deposits, which makes the ground very fertile.

N° 5 Pluribus
This is the most elevated of the five vineyards. The vines are planted on the steep slopes of Spring Mountain. This breathtaking stretch of land is defined by its volcanic soil, and it is surrounded by coniferous forests. These forests play a major role in this environment. They have a tempering effect, as well as a capacity to retain water, which is beneficial to nearby grounds.

Since the terroirs are so distinctly different, they each produce grapes with unique characteristics. And you can clearly taste that in the wines. Terroir is what it's all about at BOND and that became very clear during the tasting in Amsterdam.

The year 2018
The growing season in Napa Valley started gradually and calmly. This came as a great relief for many winemakers since the year before was dominated by wildfires. Spring was cooler than usual, somewhat delaying bud emergence. The flowering period that followed was warm, without any spikes in temperature. At night it cooled down sufficiently for the acids in the grapes to be well preserved. All these conditions together resulted in good fruit setting and high-quality bunches. All in all, this is an excellent year; a vintage that winemakers hardly dared to dream of after so many hectares perished in 2017.