Chateau Montelena vertical (1973-2002)

Bellevue, WA
Tasted Saturday, May 14, 2005 by Eric with 4,848 views

Introduction

Last year Roy Hersh organized a highly educational and enjoyable 22-year vertical of Joseph Phelps Insignia. To pay homage to that event, this year Jason Goldberger organized a 21-year vertical of Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Montelena. Just as with last year, we assembled at Daniel's Broiler in Bellevue and settled into 6 hours of tasting and great food. The group was smaller this year with a close group of 9 (myself, Jason Goldberger, Roy Hersh, Michael Gordon, Jason Domanico, Dave Browning, Susan Garrett, Justin Wells and Chuck Miller).

To try and remove any preconceived notions, we chose to taste the wines bagged with the flights not in exact vintage order.

Flight 1 (3 Notes)

The first flight was a beautiful way to start with the first ever Cab (1973) as well as the first Estate Cab (1978). The former was a little over the hill, but the other two wines showed beautifully.

  • 1973 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County 88 Points

    USA, California, Sonoma County

    The nose shows cedar, black cherry, and hints of madeirization with caramel and soy. With time in the glass some raisin and smoky notes emerged as well. The palate features gorgeously soft mouthful, not much fruit or depth but still very pretty. The finish shows a lot of tart acid and some tannin still to resolve. However, the tannins have clearly won the battle. This bottle was definitely on the edge. Group average 88.1 pts.

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  • 1978 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 95 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    This is the first release of the Montelena Estate Cabernet. The nose shows iron and mint and with air some cedar and high-pitched notes come out. Wow, the palate is absolutely rich, clearly mature, round, voluptuous, absolutely mature Cabernet at peak. The finish is very long and somewhat delicate, almost feminine with some sneaky tannins. Group average 94.0 pts.

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  • 1982 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 96 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    This wine led off with a distinctly old world nose showing ample notes of horse, mineral, and black olive. However, as it sat in the glass it showed some of its roots with sweeter notes of cassis and mint, spicy, leafy notes, fantastic! The muscular palate is loaded with graphite, black olive, hints of leather and spicy cedar. The finish is grippy, amazing powerful, fantastic structure with huge tannins. Some folks struggled with the tannins, but for me this was one of my favorite wines of the evening. Group average 93.8 pts.

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Flight 2 (4 Notes)

The next flight had our only corked wine of the night. It wasn't quite as stellar as our initial flight, but the 1984 and 1988 were classy, classy wines.

  • 1984 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 93 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    The nose shows a hard edge of dill and mint followed by clove and spice. Mmm, the palate shows rich cassis with a big up-front attack, very vibrant. The spicy finish shows very bright acids with huge tannins on display as well. Group average 90.9 pts.

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  • 1985 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate Flawed

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    Corked.

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  • 1986 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 86 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    The nose was a little dirty at first and then increasingly spicy with some caramel. The wine attacks the palate with cranberry, mineral and hints of oxidized notes. This is much less ripe than the other examples but very focused and nicely framed by good acidity. Group average 84.1 pts or 85.9 throwing out one very low score.

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  • 1988 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 92 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    This was another nose that seemed just a little dirty, then blew off, then was fairly reticent with faint notes of cabbage?!? At last the cassis started to wake up and launch from the glass. Wow, the palate is much better, a huge mouthful of palate-coating Cabernet. The finish falls off though with choppy tannins, somewhat clipped. There was some debate as to whether this is closed or just drying out. Group average 90.7 pts.

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Flight 3 (3 Notes)

In this next flight the 1990 really stuck out for me, although I appreciated the unique aromatics of the 1989.

  • 1993 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 87 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    The nose greets you with a very medicinal smell like a "vitamin pill" (thanks Chuck!) and then with air some cinnamon and increasingly oaky notes. The palate is sweet, VERY sweet, somewhat simple, showing oak spice. Vigorous tannins show up on the finish. Group average 90.6 pts.

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  • 1989 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 88 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    A minty nose greets you and then is followed by cassis, mineral, pine resin, and some horse. The more time this spent in the glass the more it reminded me of a Hermitage with its soaring, unique aromatics. The palate was a different story, tight, packed with minerals, restrained but ultimately dry, tannic and fairly lean. Group average 89.4 pts.

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  • 1990 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 93 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    The nose shows raising, spicecake and cedar. The palate is loaded with gobs of sweet, black fruit and balanced out nicely by a hint of leather. Unlike the 1993, there is no oversweetness here, and this works! The finish shows this to be young with a mouthful of tannins that rip your head off. I enjoy that myself, but for a few folks this marred the wine a bit. Group average 90.8 pts.

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Flight 4 (4 Notes)

Oh my, this flight intentionally collected some of the stronger vintages, and it was clear from the moment we poured the wines that we were dealing with a remarkable set of wines. The average score across 9 tastes for 3 of the 4 wines was better than 95 points!

  • 1992 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 98 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    This was my wine of the night. The nose is loaded with cassis, violet, a hint of volatile acidity and ultimately some roasted coffee. The palate however was an utter revelation, stunningly integrated with impeccable balance. My notes are terse, but there isn't much more that needs to be said about this bottle. Group average 95.9 pts and wine of the night!

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  • 1991 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 97 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    My goodness, another stunner! The nose is ripe yet also loaded with graphite and hints of tart cranberry. The palate is distinguished not only by its richness and balance but by impressive vibrancy, almost zingy, with a dark flavor profile, lightly bittersweet. Group average 95.4 pts.

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  • 1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 91 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    Rich cassis with some meaty/musky notes and then chalky minerality and some soy. The palate shows hints of balsamic vinegar. Is this lightly oxidized? The tannins here are poky and seem young. While this was very nice wine, once we removed the bag it seemed a bit obvious that this was probably heat damaged at some point (although the cork was perfect), disappointing! Group average 90.9 pts.

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  • 1994 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate 96 Points

    USA, California, Napa Valley

    The nose is sweeter than the others with a hint of sweet gherkin (and a faint whiff of dill) and black cherry. The palate left nothing to complain about though and was classy, dark and deep. Group average 94.1 pts.

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Flight 5 (1 Note)

At this point we were running way behind schedule, so we broke for food (seafood trays and a very nice salad). With this Roy popped a lovely magnum of Moscato d'Asti to freshen our palates.

Flight 6 (3 Notes)

The real meal got going when the 20oz Delmonico's showed up, and I finally managed to get a properly cooked steak from Daniel's by asking for "seriously rare." At this point we poured the next flight as we started to wine down with the meal, as we were only 2/3 of the way through the tasting. This was a fairly balanced flight, nothing outstanding. I enjoyed the 1998 for current consumption.

Flight 7 (4 Notes)

Our last flight contained the young blockbusters. To be totally honest, the tannins on these were punishing at this point. The wines are simply built to age, and consuming these young, even with palates buffered by steak, is just a serious workout. I especially liked the 2002 which the winery was so kind to sell us in advance for this tasting.

Flight 8 (2 Notes)

As we approached midnight, the dessert trays came out along with a pair of dessert wines. The Suduiraut is absolutely gorgeous!

  • 2001 Château Suduiraut 97 Points

    France, Bordeaux, Sauternais, Sauternes

    Remarkable botrytis, tangy, wild, honey, intense with coconut. The palate is remarkable as well with amazing acidity. This is a remarkable young Sauternes although not quite on the same ethereal level as the 2001 Rieussec.

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  • 1983 Cockburn Porto Vintage

    Portugal, Douro, Porto

    Not tasted. At least this one wasn't corked.

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Closing

Thanks to Jason for organzing and to everyone for assembling an amazing lineup! We need to figure out what we're doing next year...

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