2014 Bell Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Four Great Napa Vineyards in One Bottle

Anthony Bell is one of Napa Valley’s great viticulturalists, who spent 15 years at Beaulieu Vineyard as the chief viticulturalist working beside the legendary André Tchelistcheff — the “founding father of the modern California wine industry,” according to Jancis Robinson. So, it should be no surprise that Bell is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the best vineyard sites in Napa, and his 2014 Bell Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is made from four distinct parcels — including Cabernet from a historic Rutherford site that went into BV’s Georges de Latour for many decades. A masterful $58 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for under-$40? Not to be missed.  

If you want to find out why Wine Spectator called 2014 a “dream vintage,” pop a cork on Anthony Bell’s Napa Cabernet Sauvignon from that year. After 35 years cultivating relationships with Napa’s elite growers, Bell’s selected four of Napa’s best vineyard sites for this grand cuvee.

In 2014 he tapped an old Chateau Montelena clone planting in Calistoga; a gravelly, ultra-fruity plot in St. Helena; a concentrated, fabulously structured Cabernet Sauvignon plot on Mt. Veeder; and classic fruit-driven Napa Cabernet clones 4 and 337 from a historic Rutherford vineyard that for many decades went into BV’s Georges de La Tour.

As Tchelistcheff’s chief viticulturalist, Bell helped the seminal figure put appellations like Carneros and Rutherford on the wine world’s map. He also created one of Napa’s first grower relations programs.

This masterful blend of richly textured Mt. Veeder and Rutherford grapes showcases persistent dark fruit and integrated oak, another extraordinary Cabernet from Bell reflecting the passion of growers in what James Suckling called an “extremely attractive” vintage.