If you've had the misfortune of catching me on a rant about what's wrong with California wines, you know that I think many of them, particularly many that are highly regarded by certain wine publications, have too much alcohol, too little aging potential, and are not good food wines. That's why I'm always excited when I taste American wines that aren't over-alcoholic, and that will actually work with food.
I tasted 05 and 06 Napa, and 02, 03, 04, and 05 Estate Cabernet, as well as 07 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena the other day. All of the wines were excellent. No mystery how the Chardonnay won the Paris tasting in 1976. (If you're not familiar with the tasting, rent the movie Bottle Shock.)
The standouts among the reds were the 02 and 05 estate cabs, but the 03 and 04 were both excellent, and at a $40-ish retail, both vintages of the Napa were fantastic values. Alcohol content ranged from 13.7 to 14.3, and they all worked great with beef stew. They also all showed good aging potential, which is consistent with the last bottle of Montelena Cab I had, a bottle of '86 estate which I tasted recently. At nearly 23 years old, the wine still showed marvelous fruit, structure, and acidity, and still had potential to last several more years in the bottle.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Chateau Montelena kicks ass.
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