Bond St. Eden 2019

Professional Ratings

• 98 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  From an iron-rich site just north of the Oakville Crossroad, the 2019 St. Eden boasts effusive aromas of ripe cherries and briary raspberries framed by subtle cedar shadings. Full-bodied, silky, plush and long, this is a terrific all-around effort that deserves a few years in the cellar and should drink well for at least two decades thereafter.
• 98 James Suckling
  Flamboyant aromas of oak tree, dried flowers, violets and black mushrooms. Full-bodied with juiciness and depth of fruit and acidity. Dusty tannins and such length. Warmth and crushed-stone character. Extremely long and creamy. Firm and intense. This needs five or six years to come around. Try after 2027.
• 98 Jeb Dunnuck
  In the same ballpark qualitatively, the 2019 St. Eden comes from a cooler site and volcanic soils. It has a darker, medium to full-bodied, incredibly complex profile that offers abundant cassis-like fruit, notes of graphite, flowers, violets, and tobacco, integrated acidity, polished tannins, and a great, great finish. It’s another singular, incredibly balanced, complete wine from this team. Hide bottles for 4-6 years and enjoy over the following three decades.
• 98 Decanter
  A 4.4ha site on a knoll of the valley floor with iron-rich fractured volcanic soils made from 'hillside parent material', says Bob Levy, director of winemaking. Here is a wine that hits so many notes, every one nicely delineated, beginning with savoury black olive and wild herb aromas tinged with vanilla and cedar. The first sip reveals blackberry and red berry fruits, cigar box and minerality. Sculpted tannins etch themselves into the upper palate, while the mid-palate is all crushed stones. A real freshness takes hold through a long finish that hints at crushed coffee beans, turned earth and dried flowers.
• 95 Wine Spectator

  Densely packed but defined, with an alluring alder smoke edge, this slowly unwinds the core of steeped plum, blackberry and black currant preserves over a long cast iron spine that drives throughout. Reveals a late flurry of apple wood, bramble and sweet tobacco on the finish. For the cellar.