When making your Zinfandel pilgrimage to the Dry Creek Valley wineries, Bella better be on your short list of stops! Century-old vines, check. Gold standard Zins, check. Tastings in the cave or under ancient olive trees, check.
Bella is a small, family-owned winery founded and operated by Scott and Lynn Adams who specialize in ancient vine hillside vineyards and whose wines are a reference point for Zinfandels in Sonoma County. Hands-on care and attention at every stage make for Zinfandels that reveal the personality of the prime sites from which Bella’s wines are sourced. Case in point, the winery’s Lily Hill Vineyard is a Dry Creek historic site, the vineyard having been planted in 1915 by the Micheli family who went on to tend the vines by hand for decades.
And what other Zinfandel sites Bella’s winemaking team gets to work with! Maple, Florence, Rockpile, and Big River Ranch vineyards are all famed prime Zinfandel sources to go along with Bella’s own estate vineyard – Lily Hill.
Bella’s winemaking and vineyards experts are an all-star team of Sonoma County Zinfandel veterans: Ryan Schmaltz PhD, Director of Production; Joe Healy, Consulting Winemaker; and Nicolas Cornejo of Clendenen Vineyard Management.
Visits to the Bella Winery estate can include a tour through the winery caves, hand thrown pizzas, or tastings on the lawn under the winery’s ancient olive trees.