Community Tasting Notes 88

• KSWinegeek wrote: 93 points

  April 9, 2024 - Dark purple with ruby red at edges. Decanted for three hours which was a good decision. Black fruit, spices, touch of tobacco on nose. Blackberry flavors.

  1 person found this helpful Comment

• Grinner wrote: 95 points

  March 16, 2024 - DAMN WiNOS: Dune 2 (Rye Restaurant, Eugene): My WOTN! Opened for 1.5 hours before we got to it AND it kept getting better! Blackberry, black cherry, plum, loam, eucalyptus, cigar and oak notes go on and on. Deep and long, next in 2030!

  1 person found this helpful Comments (1)

• WineGuyDelMar Likes this wine: 94 points

  December 19, 2023 - Ok..I owe somebody HUGE credit for the 5 hour plus decant I did on this wine. I would have never imagined a 13 year old Cab would need this decant. Decanted 5 hours and drank over another hour. Wine was singing at 5 plus hours. Incredible. Drank with a 2013 Kobalt Cab which was more ripe & modern. This wine was Classic Old School Napa. It actually was the favorite wine by far. Excellent.

  2 people found this helpful Comments (2)

• El_Dougo Likes this wine: 92 points

  October 17, 2023 - I’m thrilled to finally have a good Montelena. Magnum bottle, Morton’s Hong Kong, New York strip. I’ve had many CM’s over the many years, and while I haven’t documented all of them I’ve never been truly satisfied. This storied vineyard has always left a little wanting. Perhaps it was the night, or the bottle, or the pairing, but we finally found it.
  
  Blackberry, cassis, vanilla, cedar, cherry, earth, and perhaps some blueberry. Still very fruit forward perhaps on account of the magnum bottle. Very ruby in glass. Medium plus acidity, mied+ plus length, full body, seemed plenty of alcohol there although I didn’t check the label, med+ flavor intensity. Very good wine. Only criticism might be complexity lacking (if we’re looking for some criticism).
  
  I don’t pretend this is the greatest of Napa blends. 91 to 92 points. The point for me is this was THE Montelena that I’ve been looking for.

  2 people found this helpful Comments (7)

• brouigu1 Likes this wine: 93 points

  October 15, 2023 - Last tasted in 2016 and the years have been kind to this Monty. After a 40 minute decant the nose was packed with the dark fruits and wafting vanilla. Still well balanced with blackberry, blueberry, plum and then pencil lead, leather and a generous amount of spices. I may amend my previous statement and say this is still a classy wine but now it’s a tad showier than 7 years ago.

  2 people found this helpful Comment

Pro Reviews 8

Wine Definition

• Vintage 2010
• 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 071502902635, 089819012442, 3760076820045, 669576019863, 733555100320, 733555251022, 733555251329, 873922008979

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 58 (1%)
• In Cellars 4,930 (68%)
• Consumed 2,289 (31%)

Food Pairing

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