x
  • Country ranking ?

    383
  • Producer ranking ?

    14
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    2015-2025

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The Story

The wines here at Chateau Montelena are often described as having classic “old-world” structure with ripe California fruit, and it is in years like 2010 that this really shines through. What that means is that these wines tend to have more acid, lower pH, and more moderate alcohol levels as compared to some of the flashy “modern” Cabs. This classic chemistry allows them to pair very well with a wide variety of dishes and sets them up for graceful aging. The beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors.

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Wine Information

VINTAGE WEATHER

This growing season was defined by the long cool summer that led to slow, almost methodical ripening. The only exception was a brief but intense heat wave in the third week of August that caught a lot of growers with their proverbial pants down – they had opened up their canopies and ended up with lots of sunburn – but not us. Four decades of experience have taught us to trust our vineyards, and once again they didn’t disappoint. Essentially all the blocks of our Napa Cabernet came in with beautifully balanced chemistries, full maturity, and lower sugars – perfect for our style of wine.

TASTING NOTES

This wine shows deep dense plum color with great density.   The nose opens with anise and spice before moving into rich layers of blackberry and cherry compote.   All that great concentrated fruit is beautifully complemented with barrel tones of vanilla and clove.  It is quite youthful and lively on the palate with a good firm acid core - great for food pairing - and abundant velvety tannin.  Complex layers of black fruits through the mid palate, with good barrel spice underlayment throughout, are nicely complemented by bright red fruit on the finish.  This wine is quite approachable so young, but it will definitely improve with additional time in the bottle, if you've got the patience.  If you do plan to drink it now (through the end of '13), I'd recommend decanting it in order to help it open up even more.

RELEASE PRICE $50.00
HARVEST DATE October 1 to November 4
BLEND 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc
BARREL AGING 14 months French and Eastern European, 12% New
BOTTLING DATE April 2012
RELEASE DATE January 2013
CASES PRODUCED 21,963
ALCOHOL 13.9%

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

<10 tasting notes

Tasting note

color

Deep, Ruby red and Bright

ending

Medium, Extensive and Pure

nose

Intense and Refined

recommend

Yes

taste

Low tannin, Balanced, Well-structured, Medium-bodied, Rich, Vigor, Fruity, Dry and Silky tannins

Verdict

Well-rounded and Full-bodied

Written Notes

The 2007 growing season started early thanks to a warm, dry March which resulted in early bud break. The month of April cooled down and brought us two inches of welcome rain, setting us up for very good early season growing conditions. The cool, dry weather in May was great for bloom, and we saw less shatter than normal this year. Summer was also kind. It was consistently warm with only a few heat spikes, until a strong heat wave rolled in at the end of August and lasted through the beginning of September, bringing highs in the 100’s and giving the grapes a good shove towards ripeness. Thankfully, the heat subsided, leaving us with excellent ripening conditions throughout September and October.
 
Harvest started out with a good surge of fruit thanks to that late-August heat wave, but the consistently warm days and cool nights that followed produced a nice, steady stream of grapes for the rest of the crush. Long hang-time and fantastic ripening conditions resulted in exceptional flavor development this season. The long growing season also yielded great acid retention and textbook chemistries.
 
The deep intensity of the dark ruby color hints at the great extraction of this 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet. The nose is layered with ripe plum, blackberry, dried black currant and rich cocoa. In addition, there are undertones of earth, leather and vanilla, along with a light rose top note. Bright acid and fresh red fruit flavors open the palate, leading the way to big ripe cherry mid-palate, and mellow barrel tones. The wine is rich and mouth filling with good layers, good persistence and depth, and culminating in a nice spicy ripe fruit finish. This Cabernet shows excellent mouthfeel and weight throughout, thanks to the beautiful structure of firm fine-grain tannin.

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Information

Origin

Calistoga, Napa Valley

Investment potential

No Potential
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