Chateau Montelena dates back to 1882 when Albert Tubbs bought 254 acres of property just north of Calistoga. Tubbs planted vines and by 1896 Montelena was the 7th largest winery in California. Winemaking came to an end with the onset of Prohibition.
The current iteration of Montelena can be traced to 1968, when Jim Barrett was brought on as a partner in the winery. Wine production began again in 1972, with Mike Grgich employed as winemaker. Four years later, the Chateau Montelena 1973 Alexander Valley Chardonnay won first place among the Chardonnays and White Burgundies entered in the “Judgment of Paris” wine competition. This was later chronicled in the popular wine movie Bottle Shock.
This bottle was opened in honor of Jim Barrett who passed away this past Friday.
Bright red with a touch of brick on the side of the glass. Cedar, leather and cherries on the nose. Well balanced with soft tannins. Graphite, cassis, smoke, currants, black licorice and soft red fruits on the palate. The wine tails off ever so slightly on the finish. The ’00 Montelena is a total success considering the difficult vintage.
My rating: 91 points.
Chateau Montelena is truly a throwback to a bygone era. These are wines meant to be cellared, providing less pleasure on release than they will after 10 or more years of aging.
Current vintages are readily available at retail and can also be purchased at the winery. Expect to pay $100-$125 per bottle.
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Tom, I am a huge fan of Chateau Montelena, and Barrett was a true legend in wine worldwide. Their wines are borderline cult status without the Cali Cult prices. And you are right, 2000 was a very difficult vintage. But it proves my point on modern winemaking: Great producers can always be counted on to produce great wines today, even when Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. On great vintages, you can almost pick grapes from off sites & almost anyone can make a “good” wine. It gets more difficult when it rains too much, or too little, cold or hot weather, etc…
Thx again Tom!
Terry Hill
Texas Wineaux
You are exactly right regarding great producers and not so great vintages. I was recently thinking about that in regards to the relevance of vintage charts…