Bell Wine Cellars is a small family-owned winery located off the beaten path in Yountville. The winery is situated in a beautiful and quiet area off Hopper Creek south of the main part of town. One can also combine a visit to Bell Wine Cellars with a visit to Noah Vineyards and Hopper Creek Vineyards on the way to Bell.
The principle owner and winemaker at Bell Wine Cellars is Anthony Bell. Anthony Bell’s claim to fame is a long stint at Beaulieu Vineyards as an assistant winemaker. That experience also included working with the legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff.
Bell Wine produces several distinct handcrafted wines, all in limited quantities. We tasted five wines on our visit and all were excellent. It seemed as though each wine we tasted was more impressive than the previous wine. The wines are expensive and unfortunately for us, most of the wines are priced well above our price bracket. We did think there was one very good value in the mix. That would be the Bell Claret 2003. It is a delicious wine and is priced at $30 at the winery. We saw this wine later at a wine shop in Calistoga for $25. The Viognier was absolutely wonderful but at $35 a bottle, it seemed a bit too high.
We were very impressed with a wine chart that Bell provides to their wine tasting guests. It is the best set of tasting notes and wine information we have seen at any tasting room.
To get to Bell driving north, take the Yountville exit on Highway 29 to the right. Take a right turn at Washington and then drive another mile and look for the signs pointing to the winery.
The Good: Family owned, beautiful hidden setting, delicious wines, great tasting notes and wine chart.
The Bad: The wines are in limited quantities. The majority of wines are priced at over $35 per bottle.