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About Chateau Montelena
Chateau Montelena has produced wine in the Napa Valley for over 100 years. But only since 1972, when the Barret family took over management, has quality taken off. Overseeing the production of roughly 36,000 cases annually, winemaker Bo Barret produces classic, austere Cabernet Sauvignons as well as Zinfandels and Chardonnays.
2010 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay Napa Valley (in magnum)
Producer: Chateau Montelena
Style: White Wine
Grape Type: Chardonnay
Origin: California
Region: Napa
91(+?) Points | International Wine Cellar , May/June 2012
Pale bright yellow. Complex, brisk aromas of musky pineapple, medicinal herbs, white pepper and licorice; hardly your typical California chardonnay! At once dense and penetrating, with a strong spine of acidity and some unabsorbed SO2 currently hardening the middle palate. This rather uncompromising no-malolactic chardonnay displays a serious structure for aging, and will probably need five to seven years to soften up and come into harmony. Assistant winemaker Matthew Crafton noted that in the cool growing season of 2010 it was a challenge to ripen chardonnay in cooler sites in Napa Valley.
