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Wine Description
The Story
Jim Barrett’s dream of Chateau Montelena was that this wine, their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, achieve the balance and complexity of flavors, aromas and textures to be considered among the great examples of Cabernet in the world. Almost since his first vintages in the 1970s, this wine has been a show-stopper that has everything in place, while revealing the majesty and distinctive character of the estate vineyard site in the northern Napa area that the Barretts led to recognition as its own appellation, Calistoga.
Today, the 50-year legacy of excellence in farming, crafting and blending powerful wines and continued innovation and attention to detail is what sets Chateau Montelena Winery apart.
This wine is 100% made with estate fruit. The diversity of soils and slopes where this is grown in Calistoga directly translates to layers of complexity and depth in the glass. The Estate vineyard is comprised of varied terrain, from flat to steep hillsides. The vineyard gently slopes downward towards its base, where a small patch of sedimentary soil was deposited by the settling of an ancient ocean or lake. Extending out from the Napa River is the alluvial soil, the most prevalent type on the property. In the back and outside areas of the vineyard are volcanic soils, formed by ancient lava flows caused by tectonic uplifting.
One of the historical attributes of the Montelena Estate Cabernet has always been its age-ability and longevity; often though, this meant that the wine really needed to be cellared before it would show its true beauty. Well, here at Montelena we’re all about the pursuit of excellence, and have been working to expand that window of drinkability through careful changes in how we farm, pick, and ferment the grapes from this magnificent property. By focusing on precision viticulture techniques, small fermentation lots, and earlier integration of more precisely chosen barrels – matched to the unique characters of each lot – we have been able to make the wine more approachable at a younger age, while retaining the core elements that ensure a long life in the cellar.
Wine Information
Duality in nature is everywhere – night & day, birth & death, you get the picture – but it isn’t very often that you get two distinctive phenomena at the same time. That duality is the most prominent feature of the 2006 harvest in that we saw both warm vintage and cool vintage characteristics in the same year, and nowhere was that more pronounced than here on the Montelena Estate.
VINTAGE WEATHER
The 2006 growing season was mild, with greater than average spring rains, and then from veraison through the first half of harvest the Estate saw a lot of heat and drying winds. In mid-September a cold snap hit that virtually halted harvest for close to two weeks. The second half of the harvest that followed was significantly cooler and the fruit that came in then reflected that. The great part is that we got the best of both worlds – power, intensity, and ripe jammy flavors from the first half, balance, elegance, and more subtle notes from the second half. All of this resulted in a wine that has a lot of interest, broad appeal, and the structure to last for decades to come.
TASTING NOTES
The 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has an enticing deep garnet red color in the glass. On the nose there are complex notes of blackberry tart, clove, cinnamon, and cocoa, along with dried black currants. The mouth has a soft supple entry, youthful crisp acidity, juicy plum and rich bright red fruit notes, all complemented by loads of fine grain tannin and an under-layer of dried black currant.
After a special July 2010 tasting, wine journalist Laurie Daniel published her notes on this vintage: "Offers lively flavors of black cherry, spice and mocha and fine tannins."
| HARVEST DATE | September 30 to October 27 |
|---|---|
| SUGAR AT HARVEST | 25.6 brix |
| BLEND | 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc |
| BARREL AGING | 18 months |
| BOTTLING DATE | August 2007 |
| RELEASE DATE | Spring 2010 |
| CASES PRODUCED | 9,440 |
