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93+ JG. "This is the first vintage of Chateau Montelena’s Cabernet Sauvignon that I have tasted in many years, and I was very happy to check the alcohol level on the wine and find that it comes in at a very civilized 13.8 percent in 2012. The wine offers up a deep and youthful nose of red and black cherries, tobacco leaf, a dollop of red curry, lovely soil tones, a proper touch of fresh herbs and a discreet framing of cedary new wood. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and impressively light on its feet, with lovely mid-palate intensity, ripe, well-integrated tannins, lovely transparency and a long, primary and impeccably balanced finish. This wine is so beautifully balanced today that it is quite approachable, but it is still a puppy and really needs a good decade in the cellar to start to show its secondary layers of complexity and drink with generosity. It is a terrific young bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon! I must have been missing some terrific recent vintages of Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Montelena!" John Gilman, View From the Cellar, Jul/Aug 2015, Issue #58 |