3/21/2017 - xinco wrote:

Don't get the buzz on this wine. It's not terrible. But given the hype, I was certainly disappointed. Definitely very young - it needs a couple years of cellaring at the very least. Perhaps it will live up to its billing, but it certainly does not today.

11/22/2016 - petersura Likes this wine:

What a wine! I fully subscribe to the previous review. One of the best GC Grand Cru wines I ever had. Easily worth twice what I paid for it.This Domaine should be followed.

5/11/2016 - mflesh wrote:

This wine was not properly decanted. Actually, to enjoy this one properly, I needed to fast forward about 10 years into the future, open one up, come back to 2016 and review it. A 15 minute decant (which is <1 second Montelena time), I will say that this one at first seemed "thin." I put thin in quotes as I say it very tongue-in-cheek. After 3 hours, this one was MUCH thicker. Great blackberry core, hint of limestone and herbs. The middle is where this one shows its hotter climate Calistoga flare. Pepper starting to build here, finished with young oak and pepper, but limestone is also here. This is a very terroir-driven wine. Nice bottle, and glad I have resisted the urge to open up any of the 6-pack until now. Confused by the "92.3" average rating given that this wine cannot be properly rated as of now. Drink 2018-2038!

11/11/2016 - thatrick wrote:

Disappointing to say the least. Don't know if it's in a dumb phase or just not aging well.

6/3/2016 - Cgrant1029 Does not like this wine:

This was like a bad pinot noir. A total mess. Forget that you could buy a dozen better wines for the price of one of these, it just isn't good regardless of price.

11/2/2016 - Mech-E Likes this wine:

Decanted 3 hours prior to LOVING this wine.

This is my kind of wine. Concentrated, heady aromas of black fruits. Super dark cherry on the palate with this lift that makes you swoon. It had some heavy competition on this night ('10 Astralis, '13 Swagger) and it bested them both in aromatics, depth, flavor, and finish. Just a deftly made bottle of wine. I see no reason to really hold these if you want some explosive fruit and just (over) a smidgeon of oak.

9/11/2016 - acyso wrote:

Domaine Chicago party: This wine suffers from that weird syndrome of having really, really ripe fruit, and unpleasant green elements at the same time. And when you throw a ton of expensive oak on top of it, you're going to have a bad time.

8/26/2016 - tastark wrote:

As my palate has developed, these wines have become less and less appealing. Very one dimensional. Tastes like it was acidified, achiral. Have stopped purchasing my allocation.

11/10/2015 - brouigu1 wrote:

I have been a Cellar Master member and futures buyer of this wine for 8 years and really enjoy the Montelena Estate wine. After reading some of the early notes posted here I was compelled to open a bottle and give this an early test drive.

Initial note... Disappointing.

Light in color, light in nose with a pronounced metallic and green herbal notes. Very good clarity, in the glass it looked more like a Pinot Noir than a Cabernet.

On the palate the wine was very underwhelming. Light to medium in body, light tannins & acids. Some dark and red fruits initially but fades to metallic and green stem pretty quickly. Almost as if they used all neutral oak and no new French or American oak?

No rating here as I will wait a little while to taste again but I am pretty sure years in the cellar will not help this wine improve. It lacks the deep complexity and flavors for further cellaring to improve it. I think I will be trying to enjoy this wine over the next two years and hope they never produce one like this again.

So the jury is out but this is starting to look like a hanging... we'll see.

3/10/2015 - WineTime10 wrote:

HUGE disappointment at the price point! I personally don't feel the wine will improve much with time. I think their 2011 is a dud, and I'm kicking myself for joining their futures club in the first place. I'm so done with this winery, especially their (mostly) lame staff that only care about talking you into joining the cellar masters club. Do yourself a favor and skip this! I can name at least ten other wineries in Napa that produced far superior 2011 Cabs at a fraction of the price.

7/26/2012 - jaxpaj wrote:

A cheap port flavor dominated the finish. Maybe just an off bottle.

3/5/2012 - dzal808@gmail.com wrote:

Poured through venturi and decanted. Drank over a few hours to give it a chance to open up. Very good cab, but not as good as expected after reading the reviews. Not even close to being worth the money in my book. Nose was nice but subtle. The finish was ok. And it never really softened up, which was surprising. Unless my other 2 bottles reveal markedly different characteristics I think Juslyn cab is quite over rated.

11/27/2011 - 2loyal wrote:

Great QPR, but clearly over-rated by Parker.

5/8/2011 - yonster24 wrote:

Maybe I'm missing something here. While this wine was good, it wasn't fantastic, yet everyone else on CT seem to love it.

Dark ruby color: teritary flavors just starting to show. Nose of leather, earth, dill, black olives, vanilla, oak and black cherries. Medium bodied wine with tart cherries on the front of the palate. The oak showing too much on the mid-palate in the form of quite a bit of mocha and chocolate, but still tasty. Oak spice on the med plus finish. Tannins really starting to integrate. Nice acidity. While this was a good bottle of wine, I do think a little less on the oak treatment and this would have been fantastic.

3/9/2011 - WineTime10 wrote:

After hearing so much about this Reserve blend, I was excited to try it, and it's possible I just got a bad bottle, but here goes: Decanted for a few hours before tasting. Color has beautiful purple hues, and the nose has some currant, tobacco and leather. I'm not disappointed by the nose, but not ecstatic either, as something seems a little "off." I take a taste and realize that this wine is extremely disjointed. HARSH is an understatement! Alcohol kick is on another level and mouth feel is so gritty I can barely swallow it. Mid palate gives off leather and tobacco, with no fruit at all. Horrible, harsh finish to close this out. I'm sure Mr. Wellington makes great vino, but this was just awful. The cork was not moldy, and the bottle was not corked, so I'm not quite sure what the deal is, but I know this isn't my cup of tea. Maybe with 10 years of aging it will be better.

12/28/2010 - jdesimone4 wrote:

Needed a lot of time to open up