Community Tasting Note

• Jimmyjules wrote: flawed

  February 18, 2017 - Second bottle opened within a month, both purchased direct from the estate via their futures peogram. First note as a comment to another taster. Both bottles were to my taste, pretty DOA. Secondary even tertiary notes, but no fruit, kind of dead. Very, very disappointing because so much more is expected from this winery. A year or so ago, the 2002, sourced and stored similarly, by comparison absolutely shined.

  6,376 views

5 Comments

• oldwines commented:

  2/19/17, 9:43 AM - If you are familiar, there was an issue with some "contamination" at the winery in the 2001 vintage. So, some people have had bottles that have excessive " Brett" etc. I myself have not yet experienced it with mine purchased from a retailer in NJ on release. But, I also have experience with Ch Montelena really needing an extended, long decant. It often tastes closed and flat before 2-3 hours or longer in the decanter. It is possible that this bottle needed more time to breathe. I have never had a big year (including '74, '78, '80, '84, '87, '88, '90, '91, '92, 94, '97, '99, '01, '04) of Montelena that I "over-decanted". Softer years like the 2005 right now are drinking beautifully pnp.
  Cheers!
  
  "oldwines"
  www.dtpwineadvisors.com

• Jimmyjules commented:

  2/19/17, 9:59 AM - Yes, I was and am familiar. I went to the Montelena "tour" after that incident in Philly: Bo poured all his wines to demonstrate they were clean. Re: decanting, the first bottle a month ago was open for several hours. Just got worse. I thought this one was in the same place. Oh well. You forgot to mention the 86, which is amoung my all time favorites (talking to Bo at the time, he was pretty high on it also).

• oldwines commented:

  2/19/17, 11:30 AM - You are so right...did forget '86... at 20 years old I had done a tasting with 86 Mouton, Montelena and Mondavi reserve among others. The Montelena was just a hair below the Mouton in my view at the time!
  
  Funny how at the wineries they usually decant for hours to a day before but most people don't do the same.

• Holdenculfield commented:

  6/21/17, 8:11 PM - I'm not big believer in decanting older vintages. I've seen too many strong years destroyed by air. You're much better off pouring 2 glasses and allowing the wine to unwind in the bottle.

• oldwines commented:

  6/22/17, 7:36 AM - I have had just the opposite experience with one key proviso...if you decant timing can still matter. I find that they go dead for about a couple hours between 1-3 hours then open upon again. Many times if you drink in that period it seem like a mistake but in my experience it rarely is if you give it a bit more time. I have tracked Montelena in fact over may years and i find that even older vintages get fantastic at 5-8 hours of breathing. I had the 1974 Montelena Cab in Magnum not that long ago and after 3 hours it was singing. See my tasting note on it. I spoke to some of the "old hands" at the winery and they were not sure but I gave it the time anyway and it was the right call. Great Barolo and Grand Cru Burgundy are also famous for shutting down shortly after decanting then opening back up after 3 hours.
  Cheers!

Add a Comment