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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92.8 pts. and median of 93 pts. in 54 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by jzebrack on 12/30/2023 & rated 91 points: Poured into a decanter before dinner, but drank a different wine with appetizers. So was probably decanted for 2 hours before we started serving.
We generally prefer to age the Montelena's longer--8 years is definitely on the younger side. We also prefer to serve with steaks--another thing which we did not do.
Lesson learned. It was not bad. But, especially for the price, we think the wine is a hold for probably another 5 years. And, by all means, next time we will serve with steaks (1149 views) | | | Tasted by Castle Peak on 12/25/2023 & rated 94 points: Healthy decant and this was spectacular.. When the fruit began to push through it rounded out and got more enjoyable with every sip. (0 views) (1011 views) | | | Tasted by VAGenius on 12/14/2023 & rated 91 points: 60 minute decant. Nose of black cherries and Jolly Rancher hard candy. Black cherry, cappuccino, iron ore, and fleshy red plum on the palate. Graphite, tannins, and bitter herbs overwhelm the dark fruit on the finish, with oak eventually kicking in and adding wet gravel. Good but not great and disappointing at this price. (1170 views) | | | Tasted by franinnyc on 7/30/2023 & rated 91 points: Good to drink now. Still a bit harsh. But good fruit and better with food. (2118 views) | | | Tasted by Coachron13 on 6/16/2023 & rated 91 points: Not ready yet. Fruit is too dominant still. (2009 views) | | | Tasted by larrybbaldwin on 6/11/2023 & rated 93 points: Drinking beautifully now (1406 views) | | | Tasted by cfluehr on 2/25/2023 & rated 94 points: Aging nicely, still tannic but not overly so. Balanced fruit, some earth, should open up more with a little more age. (1864 views) | | | Tasted by Elpaninaro on 2/25/2023: inky purple red color, dark cherry and cassis on the substantial but undeveloped- almost muted- nose, on the palate overly worked sweet thick cassis fruit, almost sugary, chocolate, too perfectly smooth, lots of jammy fruit here but little else, while I suppose it could be called tasty it is painful to see what has come of this wine after watching some of the great older vintages- notably the 1987- go through remarkable transformations over their long lives, that said- if you are at a restaurant with a mix of people and divergent tastes, this is an ideal wine that everyone can enjoy with a meal.
***, ready to drink and should hold in a similar place for at least ten years. (2207 views) | | | Tasted by domco on 12/11/2022: Last tried 2 years ago and still feels a little disjointed to me. Hope it comes together. We’ll try and forget the last bottle for a few more years. (1987 views) | | | Tasted by wineywhites on 6/3/2022 & rated 93 points: Black fruits, cocoa powder, ripe but not overly so (2524 views) | | | Tasted by Costes76 on 5/15/2022 & rated 93 points: Deep ruby. Robust expressive nose of ripe blackcurrants, vanilla, soft toasted oak. Dry, well-integrated acidity and tannins, palate follows through with chocolate and a soft spice and typical Napa cab sweet kicker. Full body. Great smooth balance. Long finish. (2369 views) | | | Tasted by MS86 on 7/10/2021 & rated 93 points: 93+ Deep ruby. Rich, luscious, powerful.
Nose of Ripe black plum, blueberry, blackberry new belt leather, vanilla. smoky.
Tannins are fine but chewy. Alcohol needs more time to integrate.
Flavours of Chocolate, tobacco, ripe black fruit and leather.
Excellent length.
drink 2024-2036 (4131 views) | | | Tasted by Robij on 6/6/2021 & rated 95 points: Dark and aromatic, with blackberry, plum and a little anise. Very soft but balanced with sufficient acid. Smooth finish with a touch of tobacco and brown sugar. Very elegant style. I think this has years ahead of it. (3098 views) | | | Tasted by Tim Smith on 2/14/2021 & rated 93 points: Very good, but still has years to develop (3472 views) | | | Tasted by Robij on 10/24/2020 & rated 100 points: Very dark in color. At this young age the flavors are fully integrated, but still in the early stages of blueberry, crème de cassis and grape jam. A hint of vanilla. Very smooth. Tannins are really soft. This has years ahead of it to develop secondary and tertiary flavors. (4097 views) | | | Tasted by domco on 10/7/2020: Tons of potential but feels wwaaayyy too early. A bit disjointed (not the wines fault, it was mine for opening). Needs a lot of air but really think it just needs time (years). (3861 views) | | | Tasted by spacewrangler on 9/13/2020 & rated 94 points: Really quite open for such a young Montelena, give this 10-15 years. (3107 views) | | | Tasted by rlove on 8/14/2020 & rated 93 points: The 2015 Montelena Estate is floral and elegant with a pretty nose of cassis, plum, violet, lavender, and cedar. Plushy textured with good density to the dark fruited flavors supported by regal albeit youthful tannins. Drink 2022 through 2040. (3148 views) | | | Tasted by joshabramson on 7/9/2020 & rated 94 points: Young, but very nice. This falls more on the classic side of the Napa spectrum in terms of ripeness. I would give this a few more years, room for improvement for sure. (2782 views) | | | Tasted by pepmi on 5/16/2020 & rated 94 points: The last two weeks we have been engaged in a tasting tour of Italy. We opened this Montelena Estate for a change of pace as we will return to Marche and Tuscany in the days ahead.
A faithful collector of Montelena in the 90's, I had all but given up on the winery as their prices sky rocketed and they chased the all too regular 100 point scores from Parker. Upon finishing one of the two remaining bottles of the 1991 Estate, I decided to give Montelena another try -- and ordered six bottles from the winery.
Pretty much what you would expect from a young cab from a premium Napa producer. Black ink straight from the squid. Very big and powerful. One's transported to Calistoga with a mouthful of wine. Licorice, anisette and more of the bramble than the berry. Mouth puckering tannins very much alive and kicking.
This is a wine that commands center stage. Perhaps best opened later in the evening when the senses have been suitably dulled and can welcome a wine of this size. I can imagine one opening this wine in a pricey steak house to impress clients (which it would) -- and you'd be regretting the second bottle and $600 tab the next day. But that's not the way I roll. I'll open this with my son, pop some corn and stream an epic like the Guns of Navarone . How can you beat that? (2573 views) | | | Tasted by jimyeni on 4/11/2020 & rated 93 points: Montelena estate is one of those wines that you should wait on but I like to check in on them to see how they are doing. This wine was tasting well tonight, love the leaner style (relative to other napa wines). Some nice fruit but the wine definitely will benefit from more time in the bottle (2754 views) | | | Tasted by AllRed on 2/22/2020 & rated 89 points: 4th Saturday Group: Old vs Young (T&L's): Double blind. Bouquet of red and black fruit, plum and chocolate. Full-bodied. Mixed fruit, oak spice and hints of vanilla. Finishes a little shorter than I'd like. Easy to pick out as Napa cab. (3236 views) | | | Tasted by Jeff Leve on 11/15/2019 & rated 94 points: Floral, elegant, soft and dare I say, with some polish and finesse to the tannins. The fruit is ripe, sweet fresh and juicy, which is perfectly offset by touches of vanilla, espresso, forest floor and spice. For Montelena Estate, this will drink well young and should age nicely for at least 2 decades. (5758 views) | | | Tasted by Ben Christiansen on 10/16/2019: Warm days but very cool nights. In '15 they had warmer nights though, more like oakville. Ripe dark fruit but still tastes like Montelena. Powerful (3797 views) | | | Tasted by bestdamncab on 10/8/2019 & rated 94 points: Bubbles and Holiday Wine, nose of black berry, black cherry, and black currants, same on the palate, big body, needs time to maximize score, mouth filling fruit, lots of fruit, lovely fruit, and a long finish and long future ahead. (3134 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Jeb Dunnuck
JebDunnuck.com, North Coast Part 1: Napa Valley's Incredible 2016s (1/31/2019)
(Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Red) Login and sign up and see review text. | By Antonio Galloni
Vinous, Brilliance in Napa Valley: 2016 & 2015 Cabernets (Jan 2018) (1/18/2018)
(Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Montelena Napa Valley Red) Subscribe to see review text. | By Richard Jennings
RJonWine.com (1/11/2018)
(Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate) Pre-release, from magnum - Dark red violet color; cassis, spice, vanilla nose; plush, ripe black currant, cassis, spice, cherry palate with good balancing acidity; long finish 94 points |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JebDunnuck.com and Vinous and RJonWine.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| Chateau Montelena Producer website
Very DETAILED history of the property
From winery:
What’s not to like about the weather in 2018? The late spring rains in March and April were very productive and the vines responded with plentiful growth into summer. Unusually low nighttime temperatures coupled with warm to hot days magnified the acidity in the fruit, creating elegant structure for extending aging, rather than overtly jammy flavor. Harvest was slow and methodical as subtle variations in soil and sun exposure magnified the typically nuanced differences in ripening and maturation.
NOSE PALATE FINISH
Fresh and lively, the wine opens effusively with raspberry, mint and plum sauce. The baking spices soon follow, leaning clove initially but with plenty of cedar and vanilla. Still subtle, the ripe fruit elements, mostly cassis and fig at this stage, lurk beneath the surface along with beautiful hints of graphite and toasted sage, awaiting additional time in glass.
HARVEST DATES
September 20 – October 25
ALCOHOL
14.2%
BLEND
98% Cabernet Sauvignon 1.5% Petit Verdot 0.5% Cabernet Franc
Still very tightly wound, it’s the texture and mouthfeel that drive the palate initially. The tannins in particular are somewhat coarse but not so angular to overshadow the abundant dark fruit. The dynamic tension on the midpalate serves to focus and magnify the layers of black cherry, cocoa powder, and black pepper, before turning slightly earthy and dusty. The structure is pronounced, but still harmonious and well defined.
Technical Information
BARREL AGING
22 months in 100% French oak, 40% new
BOTTLING DATE
August 2020
It’s in the transition to the finish that the acidity materializes in almost candy-like fashion, a beautiful contrast to the supple tannins. Here the wine’s density shines elegantly, well balanced between smoky, espresso bean and delicate, dried blackberry. It’s the latter that defines the finish at this moment, persistent in length and depth.
WINEMAKER
Matt Crafton
Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)CalistogaDiamond mountain |
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