Critic: Stephen Tanzer

Tasted: 01-JUL-19

Drinking Dates: 2022-2036

Score: 94

Dark medium ruby. Very pure aromas of cassis, blackberry, violet, licorice, graphite and crushed stone. Densely packed and very fine-grained, displaying lovely detail and subtle sweetness in the style of the vintage's best examples. Already boasts terrific inner-mouth tension but this rather brooding wine is quite backward today. The black fruit and saline mineral flavors mount slowly and build on the finish, nicely buffering the wine's serious but seamless tannins. This will need time to display its full personality but has the backbone to ensure a leisurely evolution in bottle. -- Stephen Tanzer

Critic: Antonio Galloni

Tasted: 27-DEC-12

Drinking Dates: 2019-2034

Score: 96

The darker, more virile side of the vintage comes through in the 2009 Proprietary Blend Quella. A dark brooding wine, the 2009 saturates the palate with black cherries, plums, smoke and incense, all in a firm, brooding style that is highly appealing. Vivid and constantly changing in the glass, the Quella impresses for its multi-dimensional personality and potential. Hints of smoke, ash and scorched earth are layered into the powerful, structured finish. Anticipated maturity: 2019-2034. I have been excited about the BOND 2009s since I first tasted them 18 months ago. My enthusiasm for those wines is surpassed only by the 2010s. The 2009s are sexy, radiant and impeccably polished, while the 2010s are more inward, structured and brooding in style. It is impossible not to compare BOND to Bill Harlan’s Harlan Estate. Although I am told the approach to farming and picking is identical in all the vineyards both estates look after, my sense is that the BOND wines are a little more vibrant than Harlan Estate, which tends to occupy a spot a little further out on the ripeness spectrum. It’s hard to know what more there is to say about BOND. These are simply some of the most utterly magnificent wines I have ever tasted, and a true testament that terroir not only exists in Napa Valley, but that these are some of the most privileged sites for making wine anywhere in the world. In my opinion, in top vintages, the St. Eden, which emerges from the red soils of Oakville, and the Vecina, from Vine Hill Ranch, are two of the greatest wines in Napa Valley