2013 Bell Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

"Making Amends" with WineAccess Members

The first world-class Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon we tasted was the 1974 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Reserve. Crafted by Russian-born André Tchelistcheff, the most influential winemaker of his time, the BV Reserve was a wine of style and elegance. What it gave away in concentration and power, it made up in class.

Just a year after that wine was bottled, Anthony Bell arrived in Napa Valley. Bell knew all about “the little Russian,” and soon landed an interview with Tchelistcheff. André was struck by Bell’s education and enthusiasm and hired him on the spot, naming Bell chief viticulturist at Beaulieu Vineyards.

Over the following 15 years working at his mentor’s side, Anthony gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the many faces of the valley. By the late 1980s, he became enchanted by the eastern-facing blocks of a vineyard called BV3, and privately began conducting experiments with Clone 6, a late-maturing clone that tends to produce highly varietal Cabernet Sauvignon that tends to be closed on release, but like BV Private Reserve, ages gracefully for decades.

When Bell hung out his own shingle at Bell Wine Cellars, he was one of the few winemakers in Napa Valley to focus almost exclusively on Clone 6. Several years ago, we featured Anthony’s 2006 and 2007 Clone 6 Cabernet Sauvignons, explaining that by design, both vintages were closed on release. We preached patience, suggesting that Bell’s Cabernets needed another 3-5 years of bottle age before drinking.

Some members heeded our advice and were delighted with their purchases. Others read less carefully and popped corks too quickly. They were disappointed.

We shared all of the WineAccess reviews and ratings with Anthony. Some winemakers would have focused only on the glowing reviews, while ignoring the negative. Not Bell. Anthony was clearly dismayed, and apologized for having disappointed some members. He is the only winemaker we can ever recall who offered to “make amends.” We told Bell that his concern was unfounded, that we had done our best to explain the virtues of Clone 6, but perhaps hadn’t been sufficiently clear. As to “making amends,” we told Anthony that we’d revisit that offer somewhere down the line.

Over the years, we’ve kept in touch with Anthony, but we hadn’t offered a Bell Cabernet Sauvignon in a long while. Then, earlier this year, Anthony called to tell us that he had completely changed his winemaking philosophy. “My Clone 6 Cabernets from the 1990s are just coming into their own. They’re drinking beautifully. But I recognize that few consumers are willing to wait that long. I needed to change my approach, and I did.”

Anthony all but abandoned his treasured Clone 6 in 2013, opting instead for the far more forward and fruit-driven clones 7, 337, 338, and 169. Instead of sourcing fruit from BV3 (now Andy Beckstoffer’s Georges III Vineyard), Bell contracted from several vineyards known for their darker, black-fruit Cabernet Sauvignons. In 2013, those sources include an old Chateau Montelena clone planting in Calistoga, a gravelly “ultra-fruity” plot in St. Helena, and the source of some of the most concentrated, fabulously structured Cabernet Sauvignon on Mt. Veeder.

Bell’s new clonal approach resulted in the Cabernet Sauvignon of his lifetime. After spending three hours with a bottle on Saturday night, this deeply concentrated, full-throttle 2013 seems as age-worthy as Bell’s Clone 6!

Parker called the 2013 vintage Napa’s “greatest in 37 years.” Forget the price tag: Anthony Bell’s new release BLOWS AWAY many of the top-scoring wines of the vintage!

Glass-staining purple in hue. Big, bold, and powerful aromatically, infused with a luscious mix of crushed black fruits, violets, and tobacco, framed with new-wood cedar. Rich, forward, and voluptuous on the attack, packed with black-fruit preserves, a splash of crème de cassis, finishing with fine, dusty tannins, subtly arguing for a long stay in a cool cellar. Drinking beautifully now, but we’d be very much surprised if this powerhouse 2013 wasn’t still going strong in the late 2020s.

$65 on release. $40 today — as Anthony Bell “makes amends” on WineAccess. Shipping included on 4.