Bella Vineyards and Wine Cave

From cellar work to the cave

Ryan Schmaltz reads the cellar by habit now, as winemaker at Bella Vineyards and Wine Cave in Healdsburg, where Zinfandel and Rhône varieties set the pace. Ryan Schmaltz first came through the house as an intern in 2012, then moved through cellarmaster, enologist, and Assistant Winemaker posts before returning to lead the wine program. His academic route, through Miami University, the University of Virginia, and a postdoctoral appointment at Scripps Research in La Jolla from 2010 to 2012, gives the work a measured cast: observe, compare, wait, decide. In the cave, that training meets the more physical discipline of fruit, cap, barrel, and blend. Joe Healy also holds the winemaker role here, with a tenure anchored to Bella since 2001 and training at Fresno State University. Healy’s throughline is Zinfandel, a grape he has called “the hardest grape to grow and the hardest grape to make wine from.” Between Schmaltz’s technical progression and Healy’s long bench with the variety, the place is shaped less by a single signature than by accumulated cellar judgment.

Small lots under Lily Hill

The program works at small production scale, about 7,000 cases, with a focus on still reds from Dry Creek Valley AVA. Zinfandel leads the conversation, joined by Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. Schmaltz’s current role also carries the larger frame of General Manager and Director of Winemaking, so the same person responsible for cellar direction holds the operating view of the house. That matters in a winery where hospitality and production share the same physical identity: the wine cave sits under century-old Lily Hill Vineyard, and the tasting formats include cave tastings, barrel tastings, and seated tastings.

The cave, the vineyard, the quiet room

The cellar here is not hidden behind the tasting room. It is the room, or close enough to it, with the cave setting doing part of the work before anyone begins to speak about the wine. The atmosphere stays rustic and quiet rather than theatrical; the coolness of the cave, the picnic grounds, and the view across the valley give the place its tempo. Lily Hill Vineyard sits above, old enough to change how the visitor reads the site. Barrel tasting in that setting makes the method feel nearer to the hand, not because anything has been staged, but because the vessel and the glass occupy the same line of sight. The pass is a cellar pass: pour, taste, listen, return to the lot.

Zinfandel as the fixed point

Healy’s named Bella wines include 2010 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, 2014 Big River Ranch zinfandel, 2015 Barrel 32 zinfandel, 2015 Collier Falls zinfandel, and 2015 Florence Vineyard zinfandel. Those bottles place his practice in vintages and vineyard names rather than broad claims. Schmaltz’s present work keeps Zinfandel and Rhône varieties at the center while carrying the house forward from the same cave. The concrete thing in the glass is Lily Hill Vineyard above, Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel below.