Bond Estates

Bond Estates is a Napa Valley winery collaboration between Bill Harlan and winemaker Robert Levy. It specializes in Bordeaux blend wines, produced from grapes grown in sites Harlan and Levy consider to be "grand cru" vineryards.

Bond was formed through Harlan's partnership with Levy. He met Levy while working at Harlan's previous enterprise, Merryvale Vineyards. Merryvale was sold in 1997 and Harlan and Levy started Harlan Estate – a winery that quickly became one of California's cult producers along with the likes of Screaming Eagle. Harlan Estate sources the majority of its fruit from its own vineyards, but Harlan and Levy were interested in cultivating fruit from specific Napa terroirs with the aim of identifying grand cru-equivalent vineyards. The result was Bond Estates, which began making wine in 1997 but didn't have a commercial release until 1999. Bond Estates has since received its own considerable critical recognition with several wines having been rated 100 points by Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, including the 2002 Melbury and St. Eden wines.

Bond Estates makes six wines in total, all red and all Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant Bordeaux-style blends. Five represent sites Harlan and Levy have identified as grand cru-worthy, though none of these carry the vineyard names on the label. Instead, the wines are labeled with proprietary names to allow blending if necessary. The first releases were the Melbury and Vecina in 1999, the St Eden followed in 2001, the Pluribus in 2003, and finally the Quella in 2006. The final wine offered by Bond also debuted with the inaugural 1999 vintage; the Matriarch red blend, which is made from the grapes not selected for the other labels. While Bond Estates buys most of its fruit, it has its own winery using an old Harlan Estate Winery facility in Oakville with the capacity to produce roughly 6000 cases. The new Harlan Estate winery is visible from Bond's winery.