BOND

BOND is physical winery, yet more importantly, BOND is a philosophy of creating premium wines from a single variety (Cabernet Sauvignon) from ‘grand cru’ site specific Napa Valley vineyards. This story begins when founder Howard William Harlan II (known as Bill) owned Merryvale Winery in St. Helena and Bob Levy was his winemaker. At the time Merryvale worked with around 60 vineyards in the valley; ultimately Bob recognized several vineyards that stood out from the rest based on quality of site.

After Bill sold Merryvale, both he and Bob pursued a vision in which they would work together to create an estate built around select vineyards in Napa Valley and none of which would be under their ownership, but all would be farmed by their own vineyard team – rather than by the owners of each vineyard. They were able to keep several of these premium vineyards after Merryvale was sold.

One should write a book called The Life & Times of Bill Harlan; he is one of Napa Valley’s great personalities. Bill is one of three brothers including Frank, a stock car racer who set a speed record for a specific vehicle class at Bonneville Salt Flats in 2001 at 236 mph. Another brother Tom died in 1962 from a trucking accident while working for the meat packing company, E.B. Manning & Son in Pico Rivera. Bill was born in tiny Pico, California near Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles and was raised in Whittier. His father, William Harlan (wife, Millie Bond Harlan) worked as a sales manager for 46 years for E.B. Manning & Son; one of the plant’s clients was Don Nixon (President Richard Nixon’s brother) who owned restaurants and whose father Francis Nixon had founded Nixon’s Grocery in 1922.

Harlan graduated from the University of California Berkeley in 1963 with a degree in communications and public policy. A risk taker and never one to fit the mold, in the years after graduation he spent a year traveling around Africa including by hitchhiking, sold life insurance, learned to fly, crewed on a boat, raced motorcycles, became a stock broker and played plenty of poker.

His first introduction to Napa Valley was in 1958 during his freshman year at UC Berkeley; he began regularly visiting a year later with college dates on weekend getaways. Lured by the natural beauty, free wine tastings and eventually by the potential for growing wine grapes his visits became more frequent. His passion for wine started in his teens. Mr. Harlan visited Robert Mondavi winery during its opening week in 1966 at age 26; by this time was already nurturing a dream of owning his own wine estate, although perhaps he didn’t realize at the time, that Robert Mondavi Winery would one day be one of his ‘neighbors’.

Before his involvement in Napa Valley, in 1973 Harlan began investing in real estate in Lake Tahoe. He and his business partner Peter Stocker founded Pacific Union Land Company in 1975, with an initial focus of selling condominiums and developing condominium projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first project involved converting what was the Watergate Complex in Emeryville from rental units to apartments.

Tragically, Stocker died in a helicopter crash involving a power line at age 46 in 1990; the pilot was able to walk away after the crash. The accident occurred on the 20,000 acre Carmel Valley Ranch that Pacific Union had purchased only three months prior to Stocker’s death.

An integral part of the company was the Lene Marie, a ketch-rigged tall ship built in Denmark in 1910 which was used for hauling coal. It sank in the Baltic Sea during World War II. But then it was raised after the war and restored, eventually making its way to San Francisco during the 1960s. Pacific Union Land Company purchased this ship in 1976 from where it was being berthed in Sausalito, and again restored it.

Starting in 1980 it was permanently crewed and continuously sailed around the world where it was used to entertain clients, employees, family and friends, all who would join at various ports around the planet. The 8 year sail spanning 140,000 kilometers ended when it returned to San Francisco in 1988. Unfortunately it again sunk in 1996 during a storm on a sail between New York to Bermuda and has never been raised.

A friend from childhood, John Montgomery joined the company in 1978 as partner and was CEO until he retired in 2010. Pacific Union is still very much active, now known as Pacific Union Partners, based in Danville and focuses on land, residential, self-storage and commercial development. More recently, the company has built a number of high-end private residences in Napa Valley. And also in Napa Valley the company used to own Chardonnay Golf Course now under ownership of the Gianulias family (owners of Napa Valley’s Levendi Winery), The Napa Valley Gateway Industrial Park and they developed and expanded an existing resort called Meadowood near St. Helena. Incidentally Harlan’s first property acquisition in Napa Valley was Meadowood in 1979 with Pacific Union Company as the owner of record.

Meadowood was proposed in 1961 by developer Freeman Nicholls; he owned a home at the time near St. Helena and was also president of Pla-Vada Development Corporation which developed the still existing PlaVada Woodlands, a community association located next to interstate 80 near Donner Pass in the the Sierra Nevada mountains. At the time the total investment in building both private housing and recreational facilities at Meadowood were 20 million USD. It was then known as the Meadowood Suburban Club, or simply referred to as Meadowood. The initial construction occurred over the span of several years in the early 1960s; by summer 1964 the resort was already hosting a variety of events. The golf course opened for the first time on May 23, 1965. From the beginning it was known as an exclusive resort, a characteristic that is still very much a part of contemporary Meadowood.

Today Harlan co-owns Meadowood with Stan Kroenke, the proprietor of Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle Winery, California’s central coast based Jonata and The Hilt and a number of sports teams. Of all the premium resorts and places to stay in Napa Valley, Meadowood is always our number one recommended choice. And another Harlan property, The Napa Valley Reserve, neighbors Meadowood. We have a separate profile on the Napa Valley Reserve on this website.

1980 was a watermark year in Harlan’s life. He traveled to Europe with other Napa Valley vintners and visited some of the great estates in Burgundy and Bordeaux all the while taking copious notes. He fell in love with Bordeaux and was impressed with the quality and consistency of the wines from those estates. He later made numerous other trips to Europe, primarily to France and Italy including visiting with the Frescobaldi family and the Antinori family, now in their 27th generation of running their wine business.

Inspired by his European trip, Harlan created a 200 year plan, a long-term vision and culture to create a lasting wine legacy. This philosophy is structured after chateaus in Bordeaux and domaines in Burgundy which continue producing despite generational changes in family ownership. And this plan not only takes into account ownership, but also stewardship for the lands under the ‘Harlan domaine’, protecting property under their ownership and sustainably farming.

In 1986 Harlan married Deborah (Beck), a former spokeswoman in TV commercials including for Lipton Tea. Behind the scenes and a fiercely supportive partner, she is never credited enough for the company’s success. Also in 1986, Harlan along with partners John Montgomery, Peter Stocker and Robin Lail, purchased Sunny St. Helena Winery (now Merryvale). This year was the first harvest at Sunny St. Helena since 1970 as the space had been used for storing and aging wines from 1971 through 1985. See our notes under Merryvale on this site for more details.

In 2020 Harlan ‘retired’ from the day to day oversight of his various holdings and passed the torch to his son Will Harlan who is now the managing director of the Harlan estate properties.

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Winemaker Cory Empting has been with BOND since 2000 soon after graduating from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo with a degree in viticulture. He grew up in St. Helena and as he says, “I did not come very far down the road”, referring to BOND’s location in nearby Oakville. His wine education and interest came early on – from friends in the valley with last names such as Wagner and Mondavi.

Today five premium vineyards are under the BOND portfolio. These vineyards were hand selected and evaluated over a number of years before becoming part of their portfolio; not all five were present out the outset. These hillside vineyards are located in both the Vaca and Mayacamas mountain ranges.

These five vineyards are the following:

Melbury is located east of Rutherford; this site features clay-rich soils and produces wines with floral and red-fruited elegance.

Quella is situated in the eastern hills near Pritchard Hill; this site has rocky, volcanic tuff soils, resulting in wines with minerality and brightness.

St. Eden is located near Oakville on gravelly, alluvial soils; St. Eden wines are plush, rich, and powerful.

Vecina is adjacent to Harlan Estate in the western foothills of Oakville; Vecina is known for its structure, depth, and earth-driven complexity.

Pluribus is located about 1/2 way up Spring Mountain; this vineyard features volcanic bedrock and produces wines with deep intensity and firm tannins.

BOND does not simply purchase grapes from each of these vineyards. Rather each vineyard involves a unique partnership between BOND and the owner. BOND then manages the vineyard with their own in-house vineyard management team. Usually, they will manage a vineyard for 5-7 years before the fruit is incorporated into their portfolio. Each of these small vineyard’s range in size from 7-11 acres. Attention to detail in both management during the growing season and when to harvest are paramount. Cory mentioned that in just one of these vineyards they picked 17 different times during one harvest – which remarkably equates to 17 different vinifications in the winery. And that is just for one of the five wines.

Select Wines
During our visit to the winery, Corey offered to taste us on either their 2009 or 2011 bottlings; we immediately chose the 2011 for a variety of reasons. This year was a challenging vintage for many wineries in Napa Valley and a year that received less accolades than most Napa vintages. And rightly so for some wines, but for many other vineyards, 2011 was a fine vintage. And a number of hillside vineyards (especially from the mid valley to the north on the eastern side) combined with smart vineyard management practices produced some stellar wines. It was a year that was raining all the way through early June (remember the weather during the Napa Valley Wine Auction that year?), delivered a cool summer and early rains during harvest.

Melbury
Melbury is named after a historic district in London and is where the owners of this vineyard live for much of the year. The vineyard is located opposite to Pritchard Hill not far from Lake Hennessy. Along with Vecina, this was the first vineyard in the BOND portfolio. The vineyard is notable for being on the hillside, yet its soils are generally a compressed clay.

The 2011 BOND Melbury shows an elegant bouquet with appealing aromas of red currant and raspberry. There is mouthwatering acidity as soon as it hits the front of the palate. Red fruit shows mid palate through to the finish, anchored by chalky tannins which linger for some time.

Quella
Quella is a German word for aquifers or spring water; this perfectly ties into this specific vineyard location as geographically it sits in an area known as Spring Valley not far from Joseph Phelps Winery. The vineyard is geologically intriguing; it sits on an uplifted riverbed; nearby soils have eroded down over millions of years leaving plenty of alluvial cobble as well as white volcanic ash along with reddish volcanic soils underneath. This is the newest entry into the BOND portfolio with a first vintage dating back to 2006.

2011 BOND Quella. Immediately the bouquet shows a quality that we sometimes refer to as a “smoky elegance”. Initially it offers dark fruit, liqueur, tobacco and as it opens notes of cedar and mocha. The palate is juicy, and mouthwatering with a rounded mouth feel. Moderate and integrated tannins anchor a fairly long finish. This wine is drinking very well young.

St. Eden
The St. Eden property is located on a small knoll at the edge of an alluvial fan that comes down the west side of Pritchard Hill extending to the valley floor in Oakville. It borders Rudd Estate, Gargiulo Vineyards and is within a very short distance of Screaming Eagle. Cory calls this wine the fulcrum of the portfolio; stylistically perched in the middle of their wines – not as elegant as perhaps the Melbury and not as robust as their bigger wines, the Vecina and Pluribus.

The 2011 BOND St. Eden shows a pleasing dusty earthy note to the bouquet, a dry dustiness if you will. The bouquet is complex, with more darker fruit showing than red including of blackberry along with a wet crushed rock component and hints of dried herbs and sage. Rich fruit shows on the palate with flavors of black cherry and blackberry. The tannins are dusty and initially showing more in the front of the palate than the back.

Vecina
Vecina which means ‘neighbor’ in Spanish is appropriately named; it is sourced from one of the coveted hillside blocks in the Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard, located slightly southeast of the BOND property on the southern edge of the Oakville appellation. This 11 acre vineyard sits on the edge of the Mayacamas mountains and is east facing. The soils here are generally alluvial. The first BOND Vecina was from the 1999 vintage.

The 2019 BOND Vecina is deep ruby in color; the darker fruited aromatics are elegant and include notes of black raspberry, violets and dark cherry. The bouquet needs time to open in its youth (we tasted 4 years post vintage). Its palate is also dark and dense including flavors of plum and blackberry. This wine is well-layered with plenty of depth and character, but its accompanying balance is one of its most noteworthy attributes. It offers a textural density but with a noticeable and pleasing integration with the rest of the wine’s character.

The 2011 BOND Vecina shows predominately darker fruit aromas on the bouquet with notes of blackberry and plum continuing onto the palate. The palate is rich, rounded and robust showing mostly darker fruits. Structurally this wine delivers and continues to do so for some time on the finish.

The 2009 BOND Vecina (tasted 14 years post vintage out of a magnum) offers some bottle bouquet including of old leather, cassis, dark cherry, mulberry, boysenberry and blackberry. At this age, this wine is showing very nicely. Some of the aromatics are echoed as flavor on the palate. The tannins are gravelly and linger on a dark finish for quite some time along with a light dryness. This wine still has plenty of time ahead of it.

Pluribus
Pluribus means ‘many’ in Latin and references all the multiple components and facets that go into making wine. This vineyard is east facing with volcanic well eroded soils located at an elevation of about 1,100 feet in the Spring Mountain District.

2011 BOND Pluribus. The bouquet needs time to breath and open but when it does, it shows bright and lively aromas of black fruit, notes of earth and hints of tobacco. This wine is rounded on the entry but immediately you can tell this wine has both density and layers of flavor and structure. Bright acidity, lingering fruit and robust mouth filling tannins keep the finish lingering for some time. This is clearly a wine built to age.

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The look and feel of BOND’s packaging is built around themes of money. BOND is Bill’s mother’s maiden name; the wines are labeled with a historical feel to them which resemble old bank or bond notes.

Matriarch is a second wine; it is created from components used for BOND wines that are not used in the final blends.

Total production of each wine is between 450 and 600 cases a year and about 1,200 cases of the Matriarch. For more information and to join the mailing list, visit: www.bond.wine