Vintus

Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley

The prime vineyards for the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon are located in the northern end of the Napa Valley, in and around Calistoga. All of the sites are located next to primary or secondary tributaries of the Napa River and have been selected for their alluvium soil profile. These characteristics result in earthy, complex and concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon softened by the judicious addition of Merlot. The cobbly, gravelly subsoil makes for deep root penetration and good drainage.

• 2010 Vintage

   

  "The wines here at Chateau Montelena are often described as having classic “old-world” structure with ripe California fruit, and it is in years like 2010 that this really shines through.   What that means is that these wines tend to have more acid, lower pH, and more moderate alcohol levels as compared to some of the flashy “modern” Cabs.   This classic chemistry allows them to pair very well with a wide variety of dishes and sets them up for graceful aging.  The beauty of our style is that you get all the wonderful ripe flavors that California is known for, but with much more expression of place, and without all the noise and distraction of high alcohols and overwhelming new oak flavors.

   

  This growing season was defined by the long cool summer that led to slow, almost methodical ripening.  The only exception was a brief but intense heat wave in the third week of August that caught a lot of growers with their proverbial pants down – they had opened up their canopies and ended up with lots of sunburn – but not us.  Four decades of experience have taught us to trust our vineyards, and once again they didn’t disappoint.  Essentially all the blocks of our Napa Cabernet came in with beautifully balanced chemistries, full maturity, and lower sugars – perfect for our style of wine.

   

  This wine shows deep dense plum color with great density.   The nose opens with anise and spice before moving into rich layers of blackberry and cherry compote.   All that great concentrated fruit is beautifully complemented with barrel tones of vanilla and clove.  It is quite youthful and lively on the palate with a good firm acid core – great for food pairing – and abundant velvety tannin.  Complex layers of black fruits through the mid palate, with good barrel spice underlayment throughout, are nicely complemented by bright red fruit on the finish.  This wine is quite approachable so young, but it will definitely improve with additional time in the bottle, if you’ve got the patience.  If you do plan to drink it now (through the end of ’13), I’d recommend decanting it in order to help it open up even more."

   

  Cameron Parry, Winemaker

   

  • "A big, mouth filling wine, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, shows the personality of the vintage in its intense fruit. There is plenty of underlying structure in this deep, resonant Cabernet Sauvignon. Mint, flowers and sweet red berries are some of the nuances that are woven into the finish. This is far from an easygoing Napa Cabernet. Although delicious today, it should drink well for a number of years. Another year or so in bottle should help the elements come together even more fully. The 2010 is 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2024."  92 Points Wine Advocate

• 2009 Vintage

  With apologies to Mr. McGuire in the movie The Graduate: “I just want to say one word to you.  Just one word – Cabernet.”  Heed the advice, this is a not-to-miss wine.  The year 2009 was the first of three cool vintages.  Montelena had a long, very moderate growing season and a long steady harvest, which allowed for fantastic flavor development in all their Cabernet vineyards.

  The cooler weather throughout the summer made for great growing conditions and then, in September, there was just enough warmth to bring the fruit to full ripeness.  The absence of any major heat events during the harvest resulted in lower-than-normal sugars, great balance, and no issues with shriveling fruit – perfect conditions for the classic, Montelena style of wines.

  This Cabernet is deep ruby in color with massive extraction and great density.  The nose opens with huge intensity, great depth, and lots of layers.  Big fruit aromas of black cherry, bright red berries, and plums all lead into the barrel notes of toasty oak, vanilla and a hint of creosote.  The palate entry opens smoothly and builds predictably with big, firm but fine tannin, good acid balance and lots of structure.  There is a great progression from ripe, sweet cherry and plum fruit up-front to rich, dried black fruit and spice on the finish, with the vanilla and spice from the barrel layering in seamlessly.  For a young wine, it is already showing quite well and will continue to improve over the next 10+ years.  This wine is definitely trying to seduce you – enjoy!

  Harvest Dates:   September 21 to October 28

  Blend:   85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc

  Barrel Aging:   14 months, French and Eastern European oak, 14% new

  Bottling Date:     April 2011

  • "The 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon is wonderfully supple and fragrant. Silky tannins frame a core of expressive dark red fruit. Floral and spice notes are nicely woven throughout. This textured, gracious Cabernet Sauvignon should continue to age gracefully for another 7-10 years, but it is awfully good right now." 91 Points The Wine Advocate

• 2008 Vintage

  As winemaker Cameron Parry states, “I sure wish we had more of this one!” The Napa Cabernet vineyards had very low yields in 2008, but the resulting small crop delivered incredibly concentrated flavors and fantastic ripeness. After the heat during bloom in May, the growing season was generally mild. The heat returned in August and early September and pushed the ripeness up in a hurry; but thankfully cooler weather followed, which allowed for picking at optimal maturity and provided a nice even pace for harvest. Overall, Chateau Montelena like a number of producers in Napa Valley, had a spectacular 2008 vintage.

  Beginning with this vintage, Chateau Montelena began to modify their winemaking philosophy by selectively picking smaller sections of the vineyards at a time to ensure more optimal and uniform ripeness of the grapes going into tanks. The smaller vineyard yields this harvest were a blessing because Montelena was never crunched for space in the winery, which allowed them the freedom to pick many smaller lots over the course of the harvest. In addition to this philosophical shift, Montelena also made a few changes to their fermentation practices that have resulted in better extraction, color stability, and oak integration. The results are in your glass. 

  The deep garnet color of this wine hints at the big extraction and dark flavors to follow. Very rich aromas of pipe tobacco, chocolate and caramel beautifully complement the black currant and ripe black cherry fruit. The palate opens soft but builds big and fast, showing a great acid backbone, moderate weight tannins, and a mouthfeel that is full but not heavy or overwhelming. Rich, ripe, sweet black cherry dominates the fruit and is nicely complemented with plum and red berry high tones. Barrel spice is prominent on the finish. 

   

  Harvest dates: Sept. 5 to Oct. 13 

  Blend:  86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot  2% Cabernet Franc 

  Barrel Aging: 14 months, French and Eastern European, 23% New

• 2007 Vintage

  The 2007 growing season started early thanks to a warm, dry March which resulted in early bud break. The month of April cooled down and brought us two inches of welcome rain, setting us up for very good early season growing conditions. The cool, dry weather in May was great for bloom, and we saw less shatter than normal this year. Summer was also kind. It was consistently warm with only a few heat spikes, until a strong heat wave rolled in at the end of August and lasted through the beginning of September, bringing highs in the 100’s and giving the grapes a good shove towards ripeness. Thankfully, the heat subsided, leaving us with excellent ripening conditions throughout September and October.

   

  Harvest started out with a good surge of fruit thanks to that late-August heat wave, but the consistently warm days and cool nights that followed produced a nice, steady stream of grapes for the rest of the crush. Long hang-time and fantastic ripening conditions resulted in exceptional flavor development this season. The long growing season also yielded great acid retention and textbook chemistries.

   

  The deep intensity of the dark ruby color hints at the great extraction of this 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet. The nose is layered with ripe plum, blackberry, dried black currant and rich cocoa. In addition, there are undertones of earth, leather and vanilla, along with a light rose top note. Bright acid and fresh red fruit flavors open the palate, leading the way to big ripe cherry mid-palate, and mellow barrel tones. The wine is rich and mouth filling with good layers, good persistence and depth, and culminating in a nice spicy ripe fruit finish. This Cabernet shows excellent mouthfeel and weight throughout, thanks to the beautiful structure of firm fine-grain tannin.

• 2006 Vintage

  The 2006 growing season started out with an unusually wet spring that pushed rains all the way into June (great for the health of the vines). This was followed by a relatively cool early summer period that was characterized by fog rolling up-valley almost every morning into July. Montelena then experienced its normal pattern of heat spikes before a late July cool down. Heat resumed in earnest during August and September, accelerating the ripening of some of the cabernet blocks. They began the red harvest at a pace that quickly filled up the winery, keeping them at capacity for nearly 24 hours. The heat finally broke in early October, and with that retreat in temperatures the harvest came to a virtual halt for the first two weeks of October. Following that cool spell and benefiting from the extended hang-time, the last of the cabernet blocks were harvested before Halloween.

   

  The effect of this was a split personality vintage with two distinct phases, each with markedly different characteristics. The early phase was dominated by heat and intensity, while the second phase was much cooler in character. The first phase gave concentration and firm tannins, while the second phase provided the grapes longer hang time and delivered fruit with a softer more elegant profile. Essentially Montelena experienced the best of both worlds all in one vintage, thus yielding a complex and beautifully balanced wine.

   

  Dark rich ruby in color, this wine offers rich, complex aromas of ripe dark cherry, sweet chocolate, cinnamon, pie spice, and leather, with top notes of rose and forest floor. In the mouth this wine makes a full soft round entry, after which the acid builds nicely to make it very juicy and inviting. Loads of fine grain tannin completes the mouthfeel, with berry patch, fruit stand flavors dominating. Nice notes of clove and toasted oak round out the tremendous long finish that will keep you coming back for more. This is a very well balanced wine that will age well and pair beautifully with a wide array of foods.

   

  HARVEST DATE            Cabernet Sauvignon: Sept. 27 to Oct. 28/Merlot: Sept. 19 to Sept. 29

  SUGAR AT HARVEST    Cabernet Sauvignon: 24.8° brix; Merlot: 25.2° brix

  BLEND                    88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc

  BOTTLING DATE    March 2008

  ALCOHOL                    14.1%

• 2005 Vintage

  The mild and uneventful 2005 vintage presented ideal ripening weather. Ch. Montelena winery anticipated optimal crop yields, juice quality, fruit flavors and chemistry. And because this overall weather pattern essentially extended the growing season, winery began harvest much later than average. But once finally ripped into the red grapes there was a massive “tsunami” of them: Cabernet, Zinfandel and Merlot! A solid and steady picking schedule, with a daily crush of 13 to 40 tons, continued for 18 days. It was an awesome period of ideal weather and harvest activity, during which took in an amazing 473 tons of fruit.

  In the glass, our 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet shows a deep, dense, black ruby color. It offers complex aromatics of berry, cedar, licorice, and classic Cabernet which, combined with its rich, underlying fruit concentration, should please the most discriminating wine lover. In the mouth it is wonderfully smooth, full-bodied and balanced, with attractive berry and spice notes, along with rich, fine grained Cabernet tannins. Tasty today, this wine is built in the traditional Montelena style, so that it will also definitely develop nicely with a few years of cellar time.
  

  • "More Bordeaux-like than the 2004, with austere tannin, medium body, and crisper acids, the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa reveals an earthy undertone along with additional sternness, a characteristic of this vintage. The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is a beauty. Savory black currant fruit notes intermixed with some licorice, underbrush, and spice jump from the glass of this medium to full-bodied, smoothly textured, beautifully elegant wine meant to be served and drunk in its first 10-12 years of life. This clearly has the fingerprints of Chateau Montelena’s Bo Barrett and his father Jim Barrett, but at a much lower price point, and for that reason seems an ideal steakhouse Cabernet that gives both value and pleasure." 90 Points Robert Parker