Bond, St Eden 2011

The 2011 Proprietary Red Blend St. Eden is even better than it was last year from the barrel. This is always a great sign and reflects not only excellent winemaking, but meticulous élevage and bottling techniques. One of the superstars of this much maligned vintage, this beauty offers up notes of forest floor, Christmas fruitcake, cedar, blackcurrants and sweet cherries. Broad, savory, full-bodied and opulent, it is already complex and delicious, and should continue to provide immense pleasure for 10-15 more years. 2014-2029

95 points Robert Parker

This highly successful project of Bill Harlan and his team from Harlan Estate and his newest, luxury project, Promontory, includes his winemaker Bob Levy and consulting oenologist Michel Rolland. All of these wines represent Bill Harlan’s innovative concept of producing 100% Napa Cabernet Sauvignons from some of the region’s finest microclimates and terroirs – all with different expositions and soil bases. Most of these vineyards are on long-term leases and are farmed by the Harlan team. To reiterate what I have written in the past, the five separate vineyard sites include the Melbury, which comes from a 7-acre parcel of sedimentary and clay soils on the steep slopes of Pritchard Hill east of Rutherford, and the Pluribus, which is the northern-most vineyard, seven acres in size, planted on Spring Mountain at a high elevation of 1,000 feet in a white, volcanic bedrock called tufa. The most southerly vineyard is Vecina, an 11-acre site planted at a 200-300-foot elevation situated adjacent to Harlan Estate in the Oakville Corridor. St. Eden is an 11-acre vineyard in the gentle foothills north of the Oakville Crossroads. Lastly, the Quella cuvée comes from a 9-acre site in the eastern foothills of St. Helena with an interesting terroir of alluvial pebbles and small rocks that is believed to be an old riverbed. These wines are all aged in 100% new oak and are fashioned from very low yields. Those barrels deemed unworthy of single-vineyard status are blended together and bottled under the Matriarch label.