Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley / Alexander Valley 1975

Reviews

JG

"The 1975 Château Montelena “North Coast” cabernet sauvignon is a very good bottle that offers up excellent aromatics, but is still a tad shrill on the backend on the palate, and may still be a bit on the young side! This was made from purchased fruit by Mike Grgich, as the winery had just bought vineyards and the first estate bottled wine would not be made until the 1978 vintage. Back in these days the wines were aged in a combination of French and American oak for approximately two years (this 1975 cabernet spent twenty months in barrel), and then the wine held another six months or so in tank prior to bottling. The bouquet offers up a lovely, complex mélange of plums, cocoa powder, violets, a bit of cigar box, a lovely base of briny soil tones and a delicate framing of vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, deep and nicely delineated, with good depth, moderate complexity and a finish . . . and a bit of tannin still needing to be resolved. If the wine eventually blossoms fully, the score will prove to be conservative. But even as it is today, it is a very good bottle."