1980 Heitz Cellar Cabernet, Bella Oaks Vineyard. Absolutely pristine from the bottle to the cork! Someone took great care of this wine and it shows! Beautiful dark ruby color with just a hint of bricking, and a lovely nose of spicy red fruits. On the palate this is very soft and completley integrated with cranberries, baking spice, and a hint of tobacco. Plenty of acidity which has kept the wine really fresh and youthful. All the elements are playing well together, but this is definitely a ‘drink now’, as it’s fairly short on the finish and not overly exciting at this stage. Let’s call it very good, but not great. Still a pleasure to drink, and as always, extra points for being a birth-year wine
Ahhh, the days of drinking Bella Oaks (by the case) every vintage. My wife’s favorite wine in the 80"s. If I recall the Bella was the “Standard” bottle for Heitz back in the day. Martha’s (my choice) was the upgrade and still reasonably priced. Really wish I had a couple Bella, but a couple 85 and 86 Martha’s sitting in the cellar.
The 1980 Bella was my second fav vintage, the 1977 was stunning, especially in mag many years later.
The 80 ranked up there with the Martha’s if I recall the reviews correctly
Nice to hear it is still kickin.
No problem! And id say that it wouldn’t hurt to open sooner than later. This was in really good shape but you could tell it was going to be all downhill from here.
I’ve had a few bottles of the 1977, as that’s my birth year wine. They’ve all been wonderful, but starting to get long in the tooth. Really would like to track down a Martha’s some day!
