Grape: 100% Chardonnay. Region: USA> California> Napa Valley. Notes: 10 months in French Barrique, sustainable farming.
Description: Chateau Montelena’s history is one of the deepest and most storied in the Napa Valley and California. Founded just north of Calistoga in 1882. Jim Barrett purchased the estate in 1968. Blessed with a complex mix of soils, slopes, and biodiversity of wildlife and fauna. Jim Barrett's dream was about creating a wine at the level of the great First Growths of Bordeaux. To this day, Chateau Montelena is considered one of the top wine estates in all of California. This chardonnay also gained notoriety in the 1976 Judgment of Paris (the subject of the film Bottle Shock) where it won a blind tasting against some of the best White Burgundies.
"Montelena's 2017 Chardonnay is bright, focused and tightly wound, with tons of citrus peel, orchard fruit and floral character. Medium in body, with terrific energy underpinning the fruit, the 2017 is a winner. Picking early and blocking the malolactic fermentation yields a finely sculpted, nuanced Chardonnay long on class. I loved it." - Antonio Galloni