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Chateau Montelena The Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 1998
HED56616
75 cl
13.9%
£135.00
Taxes included.
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Founded in 1882, the illustrious Chateau Montelena is an iconic Napa estate and undoubtedly helped place California on the fine wine map when it took out one of the top prizes at the 1976 ‘Judgement of Paris’. The 1998 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon emerged from a tough vintage with its head held high. Whilst more eminently ready to drink there is great pleasure to be found in its elegant notes of cassis, cherry, earth, leather and mocha.
92
Vinous
Good dark red with ruby highlights. Medicinal black fruits, violet and cedar on the nose, plus a subtle carnal aspect; cool--even a bit minty--in a positive way but not especially green. High-pitched and aromatic on the palate, with dense, briary dark berry fruit framed and lifted by a floral quality and mounting minerality. Not jammy or particularly fleshy but not herbaceous either, this wine is long on personality and soil character (in comparison, the '97 and '94 bottlings are more typical Napa Valley Cabernet). Finishes with well-integrated, fine-grained tannins for this challenging year. Barrett noted that he used a relatively high 20% of mountain fruit (nowadays the mountain component is around 10%) and that this fruit achieved good ripeness in 1998. (13.9% alcohol)Stephen Tanzer1st May 2019
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