Daniel Baron took over the winemaking from Justin Meyer in 1994.
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Drank many cases of the 85, 86, 87 and early 90’s. Don’t recall having any Bonny’s. Just looked and have a single of 97 and 2000. Not sure where or why I purchased these but will have to pull them out soon. Was always one of my wife’s favorite wineries along with Caymus and Heitz (Bella Oaks), and Diamond Creek back in those times.
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Meyer did not fully step aside until 2001.
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Thanks, that was what I recalled happened as well. SO in the 80’s was amazing and they aged well.
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The original Bonnies was silky smooth, but with a touch of eucalyptus that wasn’t found in the Napa or Alexander Valley wines.
I had one about a year ago and could not for the life of me see what all the derision was about. I’ve had a multitude of worse Napa Cab’s than SO.
FWIW, from a late 2015 visit to Silver Oak.
Visit to Silver Oak, December 2015
Frankly, Silver Oak was not high on my list of wineries to visit in Napa, but when Jeff and Pam made the appointment for us there, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to revisit the wines, which I hadn’t done in at least ten years. And although their style is not really my preference these days, I found that I enjoyed the wines more than I remembered from my previous visits. While the wines are still oakier than I’d like, in the past I’d encountered a distinct dill note that I didn’t care for, but I couldn’t find any trace of that in the wines we tasted on this visit. The character of the wines is seamless and smooth but they’re hardly the big, ripe, high-alcohol “new” Napa Cabs that many often deride. There’s enough acidity to keep the wines lively and not heavy, and alcohol levels are quite moderate, ranging over the past ten years from 13.0-13.9% for the Alexander Valley Cabs and a few tenths of a percent higher for the Napa Valley bottlings. Yet even without overly ripe fruit, there’s certainly a perception of sweetness to the wines – there’s little doubt that the considerable American oak character is a big factor in that.
Of the wines we tasted, I preferred the Alexander Valley bottlings to their Napa counterparts, perhaps due to the somewhat more restrained use of new oak. Silver Oak clearly crafts their wines to be approachable right off the bat, and given that goal, it’s no great surprise that they’re so popular for steakhouses and many other restaurants – rich and flavorful but not as tannic as many young California Cabs. It’s a formula that has worked well over the years for Silver Oak, and from all appearances, it continues to work for them.
I might imagine that’s because you’ll drink anything if it has zero RS? 
I think it’s the cultural position of SO which causes it to get so much exaggerated derision. It’s the steakhouse expense account splurge wine for non-geeks.
But like you said, in the glass, it’s not actually the Caymus / Mollydooker / Belle Glos that you would expect given that cultural position.
I don’t love it, I don’t buy it, but it’s a perfectly good wine, and it’s not actually priced aggressively for the type of wine it is.