2017 Bond St Eden Bordeaux Red Blend, Napa Valley, USA (750ml) VERITAS

WINEMAKER NOTES:

The texture of St. Eden draws you into a harmonious interplay between levity and gravity. St. Eden’s virtue lies in this duo of its external beauty with intellectual depth. This vintage manifests more of its erudite character, displaying innumerous facets and details. The acidity is both fine and diffuse within a seamless texture that gains definition over an everlasting finish.

TASTING NOTES:

Currants, blackberries and flowers on the nose. Solid core of fruit and tannins. Beautiful, ripe fruit. The freshness and brightness are wonderful here. Compact tannins.

– James Suckling, 97 pts.

This isn’t shy with its fruit, showing waves of steeped fig, warmed blackberry reduction and crushed plum, though it all stays focused rather being overtly showy, as the substantial but fine-grained grip provides the ideal matrix to give additional bay leaf, warm earth, iron and tobacco notes room to emerge. A deft display of power and range.

– Wine Spectator, 95 pts.

St. Eden comes from a red, rocky, iron-rich vineyard site located just north of the Oakville Crossroad in the Vaca Mountains. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 St. Eden is a little broody, opening out with much coaxing to notes of crushed black cherries, cassis and tilled soil with hints of red currants, fruitcake and dusty soil. The opulent, full-bodied, soft-textured palate delivers bags of spicy black fruit preserves flavors, backed-up by loads of freshness, finishing long and exotic.

– Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 95 pts.