Bond

After parting ways with Merryvale Vineyards in 1996, Bill Harlan (also of Harlan Estate) enlisted the help of his two favorite growers — the owners of the vineyards that would go on to produce the Vecina and Melbury bottlings — to found Bond, also bringing along Merryvale winemaker Bob Levy who still acts as his Director of Winegrowing. Harlan’s inital vision for Bond was to focus on small-production wines of place, and though the wines are not explicitly vineyard designated, they always fall within the parameters for single-vineyard wines, with all but occasionally a few percent of fruit being sourced from one site. Bond makes five different wines annually — Melbury, Vecina, St. Eden, Pluribus, and Quella — each from hillside vineyards which Harlan describes as “grand crus”. Bond does not own any of these properties, but their long-term leases give them complete control over decisions in the vineyards. These five properties are each in the ballpark of 7-11 acres, but due to their scrupulous selection process they sell off about 20-25% of each harvest.  Production levels sit at just about 450-600 cases for each bottling.