Montelena Tasting

[manton]

I wish I brought my notes.

Anyway, this was at Keene's, a very famous old steakhouse that goes back to 18somethingorother. It's very "clubby" and old fashioned. This was held in a private room. There were 15 of us.

We tasted, all told, I believe 17 vintages. One bottle, the oldest, was simply rotten and undrinkable. Two were fine but just not very good. All the others were varying degrees of good to excellent.

The food was surprisingly good, I am used to steakhouses being really half assed but this was very good. And it was A LOT. I mean, crazy:

-smoked slab bacon with cherry tomatoes and arugula
-Mutton chop (signature of the house and surprisingly delicious)
-Lamb chop
-sirloin

That’s right folks, four meat courses in a row, and the mutton chop was the size of my head.

We drank the wines in reverse order, youngest to oldest. Flights were usually three or four wines. The youngest was a 2002 and the oldest was a 1974 but that bottle was gone, mort, truly rancid on the nose and no one even bothered to taste it.

So, the big surprises for me were how many of the legendary vintages showed just meh and how many of the vintages that are supposedly meh made us go “wow!"

Apart from the ’74, the worst wine of the night was the 1985. This was truly shocking to me. When I first started buying wine, the 1985s were all over the shelves and everyone was describing them as the most awesome wines ever, California’s answer to 1982 in Bord. I bought a shit ton of them, including the Montelena, and drank most of them at around 15-20 years old. I’m glad I did. This one was far gone, vegetal, astringent, lacking balance and fruit. Just ick.

The only other wine we did not like was the 1993. Also astringent and thin, but that was not so surprising as the vintage was never held to be all that great.

All the others we liked. 2001, 1997 and 1994 were standouts, as expected. But so were 1999, 1992, and 1979, which I did not expect.

We were asked to rate each flight by what we considered best for current drinking and what we thought would improve the most. There was generally a consensus around the wines that did not make either list, which is to say, the losers. But there were clear differences about which would last and which should be drunk now.

For instance I found the 87 surprisingly tight and tannic, which was unusual for the vintage as I Iong ago drank all my 87 cabs because I thought they were on the soft side. I would hold the Montelena longer but several said they thought it was the best for drinking now. I gave that honor to the 1977 which was gorgeous if a bit light.

I thought the 1997 was ready to go but several others thought I was crazy. Whereas the 1994 seems to have a lot of life left.

The big-timer, IMO, was the 2001 which needs and at least another decade and should be huge some day.

Sadly, we did not get to taste the 86, my favorite Montelena ever, nor the 1991, which is also great. The 1991 was supposed to be there but somehow the organizer forgot it. They made it up to us, though, by ordering a 76 d’Yquem off the list. It was spectacular, the color of brandy, and perfectly mature. I was singing about it and someone leaned in and said, “Honestly, have you ever had a bad one?” And of course I had to say “no.”

The whole experience was fun and interesting. All the wines bore a strong “family resemblance” despite the vintage variation. I would place them about halfway between Bordeaux and California. They are far more Bordeaux-like than any fashionable Napa Cab, but they are also 100% Cab and overall fruitier than Bord. They tended to lack that distinctive Bordeaux perfume on the nose and that velvety elegance on the palate but made up for it in other ways.

Distinctive wines. Still among my favorite CA producers.

[AlexR]

Manton,

Thanks for sharing,

I greatly appreciate your posts.

Montelena in my experience is a Napa wine that has marked finesse as opposed to power.
I have several times served it in Bordeaux and it has met with enthusiastic approval.

Alex R.

[Ramon_NYC]

Montelena in my experience is a Napa wine that has marked finesse as opposed to power.
I have several times served it in Bordeaux and it has met with enthusiastic approval.

Hmmmm, a "Chateau" as in Chateau Montelena that the French liked.

[manton]

Meant to mention, not long ago, I had a mag of 1985 Insignia and it was singning, so the vintage itself was not bad, just that some wines did not manage to go the distance. In their youth, virtually every 85 I tasted was gorgeous.

Also, a couple of people there had tasted the 74 within the past year and they said it was doing fine, this was just a bad bottle, the vintage is still OK, at least for Montelena. 74 BV, I know, is well past its prime. I wonder about the Krug, it used to be great but I drank mine long ago.

[DavidG]

Thanks for the report! I will let my '01s sleep. Any thoughts on the '96, '99 or '02?

[AlexR]

This "château" controversy is really a tempest in a teapot.

The media whipped up a big deal where there really was none to begin with.

If it handn't been brought up during trade negotiations, no one would have paid a blind bit of notice.

Alex R.

[Tom In DC]

A tempest in a teapot, perhaps, unless you happen to be a non-French winery that has the temerity to include the word Chateau in their name?

We had an '85 Montelena tonight that was beautiful. Not that any of this matters to some folks, but this bottle was bought on release, with a fill still in the neck and capsule still spinning freely.

[manton]

Thanks for the report! I will let my '01s sleep. Any thoughts on the '96, '99 or '02?

I don't have my notes handy but my recollection was they were all fine, above average or better. the '02, I recall, we all liked the least of the first flight but there was nothing wrong with it. I don't think it's a keeper for the long term. It should hold for a while but I don't expect great improvement. The '99 on the other hand was really singing right now, a lighter style, expressive nose, fun to drink. Would be tempted to pop. The '96 I just don't remember much about, except that it was a gread deal similar to the '95, which we tasted side by side. I will check my notes when I can.