Bella Oaks Vineyard retrospective: A 15-vintage vertical

For many, the appeal of modern-day Napa Cabernet is found in its unabashed excess. The Napa Valley, after all, is epitomised today by bold, fruity wines with an over-the-top ripeness, alcohol and muscularity.

However, a recent retrospective tasting spanning 50 years of production from Bella Oaks Vineyard was a thrilling reminder that historically, a very different style of Napa Cab existed. And while climates have changed and winemaking styles may shift, beneath the excess, Napa is still a place where wines of grace, transparency and longevity are in production too.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 15 vintages from Bella Oaks Vineyard

A Heitz Cellar stalwart, Bella Oaks Vineyard is best known as a source for one of Heitz Cellar’s most-treasured Cabernet Sauvignon.

The vineyard is located on the Rutherford bench, a prestigious three-mile stretch of the Rutherford AVA with a high concentration of blue-chip estates like Beaulieu, Inglenook and Grgich Hills, as well as famous vineyards owned or operated by Robert Mondavi, Heitz Cellar, Freemark Abbey and more.

The bench refers to a narrow strip of land at the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains. Separated from the rest of the Rutherford AVA by Highway 29, the sandy clay-loam soils on the bench are entirely distinct from the volcanic soils of Rutherford’s eastern side.

Deposited by the alluvial fan of an ancient stream, the benchland rests above an exceptionally well-draining bed of gravel. Shaded from extreme sun and heat by the Mayacamas, it’s a pocket of the Napa Valley with a history of producing distinct, balanced and elegant Cabernet Sauvignon.

At a time when both single-vineyard and varietal wines were rare, Bella Oaks Vineyard was planted entirely with Cabernet Sauvignon in 1973 by Napa’s viticultural and culinary pioneers, Barney and Belle Rhodes.

Harvested exclusively by Heitz Wine Cellars from 1976 to 2007, the Bella Oaks bottling, along with the Martha’s Vineyard bottling, was one of Napa’s earliest single-vineyard bottlings of Cabernet Sauvignon.

New ownership

The 7.2ha vineyard was purchased in 2010 by an arts advocate and conservator, Suzanne Deal Booth, who initially partnered with Staglin Family Vineyards to produce wines.

In 2021, however, Deal Booth launched Bella Oaks, an independent estate winery. ‘This vineyard and historic property needed to have its own voice, to be its own estate and to have its own name,’ says Deal Booth.

Since 2010, the vineyard has been managed by viticulturist David Abreu who reconfigured and replanted the site with new rootstock and Cabernet Sauvignon clones alongside Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.

Michel Rolland was retained as a master blender, and Nigel Kinsman, formerly the winemaker at Araujo, joined in 2017 as the winemaker. Under Deal Booth’s stewardship, the estate was certified organic in 2019 and is farmed biodynamically in practice.

The tasting

The tasting at The Modern in New York City spanned 15 vintages of Bella Oaks Vineyard wines produced by three wineries: Heitz Wine Cellars, Staglin Family Vineyard and the estate itself, Bella Oaks.

Despite 47 years of varied climate, weather, viticulture and vinification, the wines share a freshness of structure and fineness of tannins well into the ripe, flamboyant vintages of the 1990s and beyond. As a whole, they are remarkable for their longevity and ability to express vintage character well into their maturity. 

Heitz Cellar’s 1976 debut bottling of Bella Oaks Vineyard is nothing less than a masterpiece – a penetrating, soulful wine that maintains a youthful purity of fresh-fruit flavours and perfume. Even more impressive is that the wine came from three-year-old vines planted in 1973.

The 1976 and 1998 bottlings, produced by winemaker Joe Heitz, outperform even though they represent two of Napa’s most challenging vintages. 

‘Strong vineyards like Bella Oaks perform well regardless of vintage,’ explains Kinsman. ‘And when great vineyards have a strong signature, it doesn’t matter who’s farming or doing the winemaking. The signature of a site can transcend it all.’ 

A shift in style

Historic progressions in winemaking and wine style in Napa were also on display. Early bottlings by Heitz Cellar were matured in large, well-aged redwood foudres, lending restraint and a subtle, cedary edge to the wines. A shift in style evident from 1998 to 1999 suggests the introduction of new American oak barrels that lent a glossy sheen of sweet vanilla and mesquite to subsequent wines.

The profound shift in volume and density of the wines from the 1980s to the 1990s suggests warming climates but also changes in viticultural management. Riper, rounder wines of the 1990s recall a time ‘when we started to understand the impact of yield reduction and green drop passes were happening much more frequently,’ says Kinsman.

2018 marked the inaugural bottling of the Bella Oaks Proprietary Red Wine. Rather than a varietal expression of Cabernet Sauvignon, it showcases Cabernet Sauvignon co-fermented with smaller proportions of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc.

This wine matured in new French barrique and is luscious on the palate, and the wines are thoroughly modern in style. Yet they maintain a focus and purity of fruit that’s very much in line with its past.

‘Yes, they’re modern, yes there’s more body to these wines,’ says Kinsman. ‘But there’s also a vitality and freshness inherent to this place,’ he says.

As his understanding of the vineyard has increasingly solidified, Kinsman says he finds himself dialling back, reducing proportions of new oak and embracing a new chapter for Bella Oaks Vineyard where ‘my job is to let the vineyard speak for itself’.

The evolution of Bella Oaks in 15 vintages

Wines are listed in vintage order youngest to oldest

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