Our Winemakers

Anthony A. Bell

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 Masters 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.

Anthony crushed his first vintage of Bell Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone Six in 1991, thought to be the first single vineyard, single clone Cabernet produced and labeled in Napa. In 1994, Anthony left his positions of Director of winemaking, VP and GM of Beaulieu Vineyard to pursue fulltime his passion for Cabernet Sauvignon at Bell Wine Cellars, with a mission of producing small quantities of hand crafted, vineyard expressive wines.

Michael Conversano

Michael brings an extensive background in food preparation to his winemaking role at Bell. After spending seven years as a chef, he undertook a very methodical approach to learning and understanding the winemaking process, working at various wineries prior to graduating from UC Davis in 2008 with a Master's in Viticulture and Enology.

In 1996 he worked his first harvest at Domaine Carneros Winery and found the experience to be a lot like cooking, except that he got to go home at night! Over the next three years, Michael explored different winemaking regions, working harvests at Dry Creek Winery in Sonoma, Chalone Vineyard in Soledad and Firestone Vineyard in Santa Barbara.

In 2001 Michael and his family moved to Napa Valley where he worked as Senior Cellar Worker for William Hill Winery. In 2003 he joined Cakebread Cellars as Cellar Foreman, and following graduation from the UC Davis graduate program, joined V. Sattui Winery as Enologist.