Thursday night, 10 Boston area winos and 1 Western Mass outlander got together at Café Mangal in Wellesley to go through a mighty impressive vertical of Chateau Montelena. We went through the wines in roughly chronological order, but held out the 1991 and 1992 for the final flight.
Flight 1: 1977, 1982, 1987
1977 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. Even this oldest wine of the tasting has a nice healthy color. I very much like the soft, elegant nose of this wine, which offers up aromas of dried currants, soft spicecake, persimmon, eucalyptus and a dried cedar note that grows and grows with air. In the mouth, it is very smooth, beautifully integrated, and elegant in a medium-bodied, red-fruited package. There are still some very refined tannins on the long, balanced finish. This is a real treat, but probably best to drink relatively soon.
1982 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. This is a darker, denser color and offers up a nose of soft loamy earth, dark cherry, toasty spices, and a distinctive smoked hickory and maple note. The attack has a kind of tingly, prickly, spicy feel, but I wouldn’t call it especially acidic. Indeed, the texture is moderately chewy, with a late hit of big, grippy tannins. The finish seems to be drying out somewhat, and the tannins tend to take over. It is hard to say whether the fruit can keep up with the tannins, but I suggest opening soon for current drinking pleasure.
1987 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. The 1987 displays aromas of leather, tobacco leaf, cassis, licorice and a slight hint of menthol. It is well-structured in the mouth, with rich, deep dark berry fruit and spices. Very fine, spicy tannins drive a long, nicely-balanced finish. Yet, the wine seems a bit more four-square than expected and probably would be best to hold another 5 years.
Flight 2: 1990, 1995, 1996
1990 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. This feels like it may be in an awkward phase right now. The nose is an interesting mix of crème de cassis, high-toned varnish, tar oil, mineral and ash aromas. However, in the mouth, it feels a bit monolithic up front, and the mid-palate never really fleshes out, either. There is good acidity to counter rich, chewy fruit, but the whole package never really breaks out of its tough outer shell. Sit on this.
1995 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. The 1995 began a run of what I thought to be four outstanding Montelenas (at least to my taste!). This wine’s bouquet includes notes of soy, maple syrup, prune, herbs, rawhide, and faint eucalyptus. It really fills the mouth nicely with its complement of spices, cassis, black raspberry and chocolate flavors. It is deep, dark and rich, with full body and formidable structure. It has excellent length and turns more perfumed toward the persistent finish, which also displays some fudgy tannins. This has a very solid future and ought to hold for quite some time.
1996 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. The 1996 could easily have been my wine of the night, and the more I think about it today, the more I think it really was (with apologies to the lovely, mature 1977). Here, one finds a very sweet nose of crème de cassis, rich raspberry compote, soft leather and spicy cedar that slowly morphs to reveal more of a roasted red fruit quality that pulls a sucker like me right in. From beginning to end, this fans out beautifully and seamlessly to fill the whole mouth with its plush, warm roasted fruit. Yet, it still maintains solid structure and fine balance despite feeling much lower in acidity than many other vintages. The wine goes on for some time, and finishes with a pretty spice pack and what I think to be a lot of character. This is drinking just beautifully right now.
Flight 3: 1999, 2000, 2002
1999 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. The good stuff keeps on coming. The nose renders up aromas of plums, dusty red currants, strawberry licorice rope and mineral. It is very concentrated in the mouth, with a decidedly fleshy texture. The penetrating fruit is the darkest encountered thus far in the evening, and is lush, juicy and twangy on the palate. Flavors of dark bitter chocolate dominate the lengthy finish. On the whole, this feels rock solid.
2000 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. In many ways, the 2000 is a very different animal than the 1999 (and most others in the line-up). Aromatically, it returns one to the roasted sweet fruit of the 1996, and wraps that around plum, cocoa, mossy earth and light caramel scents. It is very fresh, bright and tangy in the mouth with more crispy acidity than any other wine in the line-up. It is medium-bodied and shows much gentler tannins than most of the other wines. It seems a bit unique in that it feels like a wine that is not only accessible but rather enjoyable at a young age.
2002 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. There are some leafy, mineral notes and muddled red fruits, but that is about all on the nose of this wine, which is closed for business big-time. Backward and tight in the mouth, it offers a glimpse of very dark fruit but is dominated by extremely drying tannins. I can sense a nice texture and obviously a lot of structure, but it seems like it will take some time to come out of its shell. Several folks at my table had this closer to release and said it was delightful then. It goes to show how dangerous it can be to form an opinion on just one snapshot tasting, as this is likely to re-emerge as an outstanding wine (some time in the distant future!).
Flight 4: 1991, 1992
1991 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. This heralded bottling offers a dark nose of black raspberry, tar, soft tobacco, espresso and fern. In the mouth, it immediately created an image in my head of a finely-tuned English butler—dapper, refined, perfectly-presented and altogether serious. The fruit is dark and seamless and serious and the balance is perfect around flavors of black licorice, blackberry and dark chocolate. It has a pure finish, with very classy, fine-grained tannins that are quite persistent. I heard raves about this wine from every corner, but I actually find the 1992 more to my liking (and on this I think I stood alone—oh well!).
1992 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon The Montelena Estate. This has a delightfully expressive nose, offering up aromatics that include warm red fruits, loamy earth, worn bridle leather and drying tobacco leaf. One finds a sweet profile in the mouth, with creamy red currants and fruit that is bright yet seductive. It is lighter, more fruity and overall more fun and inviting style of wine than its flight-mate, yet in my mind its qualitative equal (at least) for drinking right now.
Overall, it was a fantastic evening and offered yet another indication of the year-in, year-out quality churned out by this long-standing standard-bearer for Napa Valley Cabernet.
I should add that several of the vintages really divided opinion. The '87, '99, '00 and '92 all seemed to fall in a fairly wide range of rank orders and qualitative descriptions. Well, here you have one man's opinion, anyway!
-Michael
