Bell Sonnette Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 | Hedonism in a bottle
Bell Sonnette Unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 is deep ruby color. Brooding aromas of ripe black plum in addition to cherry, espresso, and chocolate. Dense on the palate, with sweet dark fruits and creamy oak notes. Add the subtle rosemary notes and Winemaker Anthony Bell does it again!
Anthony Bell produced only a handful of barrels of his flagship “Sonnette” Cabernet Sauvignon in the exceptional 2015 vintage. This wine sells elsewhere for $120. Thanks to our long relationship with Bell, we’re offering some of the last of this cuvée for over half-off. This is a jaw-dropping value at $57 per bottle. For 2015 Napa Cabs, deals like this are vanishingly rare.
Tiny 2015 production – exclusive find
In 2015, a Napa vintage for the ages, the brilliant Anthony Bell authored an extremely limited-production treasure. Wine Access clients have clamored for his opulent Clone 6 Cabernets ever since we began offering them with the 2006 vintage. But last week, we found his tiny production 2015 Sonnette Cabernet. It is almost unmatchable when it came to hedonism-in-a-bottle and aromatic fireworks. Bell makes only a handful of barrels of the Sonnette each year. The winemaker focuses on expressing one aspect of the vintage that he finds particularly enchanting. Robert Parker remarks that the 2015 “continues the remarkable succession of exceptional vintages in Northern California.”
In the warm and dry 2015 growing season, Bell let Mother Nature take the lead. The abundant sunshine and warm summer temperatures restricted yields hastening the ripening process. The harvest was Bell’s earliest in the winery’s history. The vines yielding tiny berries of immense concentration and vibrant structure. Bell set aside just 6 barrels (just 78 cases) which exemplifies 2015’s rich textures. Today, they’re ready for your dinner table.
Winemaker Anthony Bell
Winemaker Anthony Bell is a traditionalist. If you talk to him and revisit his 39-year stay in Napa Valley, you quickly come to understand the depth of his winemaking resolution. Bell marches to his own drummer, putting out some of the more distinctive wines in the valley. After the Stellenbosch native emigrated to Napa in the late 1970s, he landed a winemaking job at Beaulieu Vineyards. Working alongside the legendary Russian-born André Tchelistcheff, Bell gained an encyclopedic knowledge of the many faces of the region, coming to fame for his clonal research on the low-yielding Clone 6, yielding Cabernets that age like top-shelf Bordeaux.
Explore today’s finds at Wine Access
Anthony Bell was born into a South African wine family. Teenage work experience in Spain, France, and South Africa developed an appreciation of the elegant, sophisticated European wine style. After completing his undergraduate viticultural degree at Stellenbosch University in South Africa and his Master’s degree in enology at U.C. Davis, Anthony began a 15-year career at Beaulieu Vineyard, California’s royal house of Cabernet Sauvignon.
During his innovative tenure as director of winemaking and later as general manager, he pioneered educational grower-vineyard programs, wrote the definition of the Carneros appellation, and raised the bar on BV’s grape quality by conducting the now famous, groundbreaking research into the differences and impact of clonal variations on Cabernet Sauvignon.