Community Tasting Notes 308

• Sanlucar Likes this wine: 91 points

  March 21, 2024 - From several bottles of 375 ml, and they all had a very slight cork taint which never fully resolved but was not so strong as to ruin the experience. Earthiness was in abundance along with bunches of fully mature tobacco leafs and aged cedar. Being a cigar smoker, I enjoyed that flavor profile, but others didn't care for the heavy tertiary flavors. Perhaps this wine is better in a larger format, but if you have the 375s, drink up now.

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• B&PBaker Likes this wine: 91 points

  March 1, 2024 - Subdued nose. Nice soft fruit. Moderate finish. Classy and very pleasant.

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• 87tellub Likes this wine: 93 points

  December 31, 2023 - NYE 2023: This was a great bottle of wine. Opened at 2pm, let it slow ox, and have impressions from 3 different samples, from PnP, to 45 minutes later, to 2-5 hours later.
  
  Medium to dark garnet. Nose is bright and alive upon first inspection. Combination of mineral red rocks, earthy notes and a bit of red fruit. Almost medium in body, resolved tannins, still a refreshing dose of acidity. Into the finish the fruit profile becomes more baked than fresh with notes of anise.
  
  Update: already better with just 30-45 minutes of bottle air. Just very pretty and balanced. Some cigar box nose, more red plum palate, good intensity on the finish. Caramel and fig creeping in.
  
  2 hours of air and it's put on a little weight. Texture is very fine and lovely.
  
  Can obviously enjoy this now, but this bottle will still have been very fine in 5 years, probably even 10 or possibly more with proper storage.

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• AllRed wrote: flawed

  October 21, 2023 - 4th Saturday Uptown Brown Bagger (MM's): Blind. Dark color. Bouillon cube, soy and black fruit notes on the nose and palate. Overly acidic and sour on the palate. Undrinkable.
  
  This was our bottle and my I nearly fell off my chair when the bag came off. This was double decanted off its sediment two hours before the flight was poured, at which time there were black fruit and leather notes, and none of the bouillon/soy qualities...in fact I thought it would be in the running for WOTN by the time we got around to the tasting. Not a representative bottle based on other recent tastes.

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• burgundybrooks Likes this wine: 88 points

  August 12, 2023 - Prime rib grilled, with Dean, potato air fried, salad

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Pro Reviews 2

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2003
• Type Red
• Producer Chateau Montelena
• Varietal Cabernet Sauvignon
• Designation The Montelena Estate
• Vineyard n/a
• Country USA
• Region California
• SubRegion Napa Valley
• Appellation Calistoga
• UPC Codes 006000008022, 006691000060, 3760076820045, 573355500008, 669576019863, 733555100320, 733555251329

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 72 (1%)
• In Cellars 5,464 (55%)
• Consumed 4,316 (44%)

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