The 1976 Bella Oaks Vineyard Cabernet from David and Joe Heitz is still quite a young wine and has decades of life still ahead of it. As the drought vintage of 1976 produced pretty tannic examples of cabernet, I suppose it is not surprising that the Bella Oaks still has a bit of backend tannin and really needs an hour or two in DC to fully blossom and start to drink with generosity. Once it opens up, the wine is excellent, offering up a deep and complex bouquet of black cherries, cassis, cigar ash, a fine base of soil, a touch of eucalyptus and red curry, woodsmoke, cedar and a bit of petroleum jelly in the upper register. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and complex, with a sweet core of fruit, very good soil signature, fine focus and grip and a long, elegant and still modestly tannic finish. This has the nice, tangy acids of the Heitz cabernets (which do not go through malo) and this has kept the fruit fresh as can be at forty-two years out from the vintage! Believe it or not, this wine is still climbing and may well be even better with further bottle age. (Drink between 2018-2040)
JG92August 2018