Red, white and true
By Lyn Dowling
Some great little wineries produce some great little wine in this country, some of which have received their share of attention, others of which deserve it. Sometimes, you can but their products locally and in other cases, they’re available online. Either way, they’re worth a sip and so they will be featured here.
Bell Wine Cellars
Yountville
Napa Valley, California
www.bellwine.com
Anthony Bell is a rather quiet, unassuming man, but when he speaks of viticulture, his passion is clear. “Wine is grown in the vineyard and we are merely stewards of nature while the wine is in our cellar,” he says.
He’s been stewarding it all his life, the child of a South African wine growing family who worked in the vineyards of Spain and France, as well as in his native country, as a teenager and later took his degree in viticulture from – how appropriate – Stellenbosch University.
After taking his master’s degree in oenology from the University of California-Davis, Bell went to work at the Golden State’s much-respected Beaulieu Vineyard. In 1991, Bell finally established his own cellars near the town of Yountville, where George Yount first planted in 1838. Joined in 2002 by former wholesaler Ron Berberian and his wife, Dea Spanos Berberian of the wine-growing Spanos clan, Bell set out to expound his belief in “terroir,” the French term that encompasses all factors that differentiate one vineyard from another.
Bell intentionally keeps his production numbers, like the number of people who work in his winery (“When I get back from my wine trips, I’m also the maintenance man”) small, producing only 12,000 to 15,000 cases per year. Ninety percent of Bell’s wines are sold in only 10 markets.
Bell Wine Cellars’ respected Cabernet Sauvignon Clones Program now produces five different Cabernet-based wines: Bell Claret, a blend of what Bell calls “fruit-forward lots of Bordeaux varietals married with Syrah; Napa Cabernet, a blend of Cabernet clones, Petit Verdot, Cabernet franc, Merlot and Malbec; Sonnette, a Bordeaux blend; Talianna, a blend of the vineyard’s finest barrel lots and syrah; and Bell Clone 6, its signature wine.
Its nationally distributed wines include: Sauvignon Blanc (Lake County); Chardonnay (Napa Valley); Syrah (Canterbury Vineyard); Merlot (Napa Valley); Claret (Napa Valley), Sonette, Talianna and Clone 6.
Bell also fares well through its Carillon wine club and winery tastings, and wines available through those venues include: Sauvignon Blanc (Darling Hills); Rose; Syrah, Block 6; Big Red Guy; Port; Chardonnay (Younvville); Syrah (Massa Ranch); Petit Verdot (Massa Ranch); and Merlot (Yountville).
“We try to really make wines that are balanced . . . I want to make a wine to where you could just sit around and drink a good class of wine and say, ‘I really am enjoying myself,’” he says.
Our opinions of some Bell wines:
2007 Sauvignon Blanc (Lake County) – It has the flavors of fresh citrus and mineral, with brisk acidity, with a long, really nice finish.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – This is a good, spicy wine with a great, clean finish; full-bodied, but balanced.
2005 Talianna Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) – Again, nicely balanced, with equal measures of fruit, oak, tannins and acidity, and it’s all redolent of berries.
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