Bond (4 Bottles in OWC) 2004

Professional Ratings

• 98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  2004 Bond Pluribus: Perhaps the wine that jumped the most in score from when I first tasted these wines out of bottle in 2008, is the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Pluribus. Rated 94 back in 2008, it’s now a solid 98 and knocking on the door of perfection. This wine comes from a Spring Mountain vineyard northwest of the charming town of St. Helena. It has gorgeous notes of graphite, acacia flowers, blueberry liqueur, scorched earth and hot stones. Reminiscent of a top Graves, it is another full-bodied, rich, concentrated wine with good acidity as well as fabulous purity and concentration. I had not seen the Graves-like character in this wine prior to bottling and post-bottling, but it is there now. This stunner is open for business and its fragrance and suppleness suggest drinking it over the next two decades.

• 98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  2004 Bond St. Eden: The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon St. Eden, which comes from a valley floor vineyard in Oakville, is another dead ringer for a great Pauillac, possibly a young Mouton. Dense bluish/purple in color with stunning notes of cedarwood, unsmoked high-quality cigar tobacco, creme de cassis and espresso roast, this wine has fabulous fruit, density and a full-bodied, youthful mouthfeel, wonderful balance and purity, and a terrific finish that goes on for close to a minute. This is also relatively open, but slightly more structured than the Melbury. There’s no sense deferring gratification, so I would suggest drinking it over the next 15-20 years, possibly longer.

• 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  2004 Bond Melbury: The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Melbury comes from Pritchard Hill and is aged 22 months in 100% new French oak. (About 600-700 cases of each of these wines are produced.) The 2004 Melbury is showing even better than it was early on. It is very open-knit for a Bond wine at age ten and that’s a good thing, since we all want to drink these wines in our lifetime. This comes across as a Napa version of the famed Pauillac Pontet-Canet, with terrific licorice, cedarwood, blackberry, creme de cassis, toast, spice box and lead pencil notes in the aromatics and flavors of this drinkable, full-bodied, opulent wine that is strutting its stuff splendidly. It should drink well for another 15 or more years given its sensational richness and overall equilibrium.

• 96 Wine Enthusiast

  Brilliant aromatics here, just stupendously attractive. Among the sweetest and most approachable of Harlan's current stable, it's also complex and ageworthy. Fairly tannic now, with a refined sandpapery grittiness coating pure flavors of ripe cherries, plums and blackberries and their associated liqueurs. The finish is so long, balanced and harmonious.

• 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  2004 Bond Vecina: The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Vecina emerges from an 11-acre western Oakville hillside not far from the famed Harlan Estate. This wine, which I rated identically in 2008, has a huge nose of bouquet garni, roasted meats and is clearly the spiciest of all the Bond 2004s. It is full-bodied, viscous and thick, with some tannins still to resolve in the finish. Again, there’s no reason to defer gratification because of the incredibly complex aromas as well as flavors. Some new saddle leather also makes an appearance in this multidimensional, full and impressive wine. This is a terrific example of great Napa viticulture combined with extraordinary craftsmanship from Bob Levy and Michel Rolland, with a long-term vision provided by the inimitable Bill Harlan. Drink this wine over the next 2-3 decades.

• 94 Wine Enthusiast

  2004 Bond Melbury: A dark, rich wine, this opens with ripe, sweet aromas of fresh blackberries, cedar, cigar box, pencil lead and cinnamon. Brings to mind a classified Pauillac, rather hard and tannic now, but sweetly ripe and refined, and very rich in mulberries, cherries, licorice and mocha.

• 92 Wine Enthusiast

  2004 Bond Vecina: Forward, rather jammy in blackberry, black raspberry, cherry, cola and cedar, with a dessert pastry richness suggesting macaroons and oatmeal raisin cookies. Incongruous as it sounds, there's also a complementary dusting of dried rosemary, lavender and thyme, like the garrigue scent of a southern Rhône wine.

• 91 Wine Enthusiast

  2004 Bond Pluribus: In the Bond stable, Pluribus marches to a different beat. There's something of a baked pastry quality, with scents of marzipan, blackstrap molasses, and blackberry-cherry pie filling. This is the rawest Bond wine, the most tannic and least approachable. It's almost rustic in heft, like an Amador Zinfandel.