2006 Quella Cabernet Sauvignon

Bright medium ruby. The sexy nose is a bit like the 2007 but with less liqueur-like ripeness. Sweet, thick and pliant, with the dark fruit and mineral flavors complicated by an element of truffley underbrush that enhances the wine's early appeal. This nicely concentrated wine finishes with tactile, tasty tannins, its subtle sweetness leavened by medicinal reserve.

The newest entry into these single-vineyard wines (which are virtually all 100% Cabernet Sauvignon) is the 2006 Quella. Dense purple, this wine comes across as the most austere of any of these wines. This dense, rich, elegant wine displays impressive notes of espresso roast intermixed with blackberry and floral-infused blue fruits, but in the finish the tannins kick in, and the wine seems closed and in need of considerable aging. I would sit on this for a good half dozen years, and drink it over the following two decades. To reiterate what I have written in the past, Bond is the world-class project of Harlan Estates owner Bill Harlan. It is a simple concept—take 20+-year leases on some of the finest vineyard sites in all of Napa Valley, bring in your own winemaker (the well-known Bob Levy, along with Michel Rolland in the background) and produce these single-vineyard wines, with the stuff considered not good enough culled out and blended together into their second wine, called Matriarch. All of these wines are aged for nearly two years in 100% new French oak and bottled with no fining or filtration. They are all meant for 25 or even possibly 35+ years of aging. There are now five separate vineyards in the Bond portfolio. Quella comes from a 10-acre vineyard in Spring Valley near Howell Mountain, planted on volcanic white ash called tufa. The St. Eden comes from a valley floor vineyard in the Oakville corridor. Melbury is from Pritchard Hill, overlooking Lake Hennessy, Vecina a east-facing hillside neighbor to Harlan Estate, and Pluribus a Spring Mountain vineyard overlooking St. Helena. The 2006s, which seemed tannic and unevolved last year, have put on weight, elegance, and for the most part, showed in the upper point ranges I gave them last year from barrel.