Chateau Montelena Riesling 750ml

$63.59 $58.29 price per bottle

Located just north of Calistoga in Napa Valley, California, Chateau Montelena is an iconic estate whose name is synonymous with excellence. Founded in 1882 by Alfred L. Tubbs, this businessman steadily increased production until Prohibition, after which the property fell into disrepair. In 1958, Yort and Jeanie Frank purchased the estate and slowly transformed it into the beautiful property that it is today. When the Barrett family bought the property in 1972, James Barrett focused his attention on restoring the vineyards, winery and cellar. Chateau Montelena is a true family affair – James’s son Bo is Montelena’s master winemaker and for more than 30 years he has consistently created benchmark wines in the house style. Other key members of the winemaking team include winemaker Cameron Parry, assistant winemaker Matt Cratfon and vineyard manager Dave Vella. The now famous Paris tasting of 1976 placed Chateau Montelena at the forefront of the wine world and the family continues to build upon its legacy of excellence and dedication to terroir-driven, authentic wines. Technical notes 2011 was a long growing season, resulting in beautifully balanced fruit that displayed concentrated flavors with proper phenolic balance. By the time the grapes were harvested, noble rot was prevalent throughout the vineyard. The must was fermented in stainless steel using three different yeast strains and the wine was racked on its fine lees before aging in neutral barrels and stainless steel.
Producer Chateau Montelena Winery, originally called A. L. Tubbs winery after its founder Alfred Tubbs, was constructed in 1888 and intended as a barrel-aging facility. The Chateau was unique in materials, plan, size, and style for its era. In nineteenth-century Napa Valley, the majority of wineries were constructed of wood. Instead, the Chateau is made of stone with walls three to twelve feet thick, which provides natural insulation against outside heat or cold. Similarly, the structure built into a hillside, to further regulate temperature - something necessary for producing quality wines but uncommon at the time. Also rare among Napa Valley wineries, the Chateau resembles an English Gothic castle gatehouse complete with rusticated stone walls, battlement with crenels and merlons, narrow arched windows, large arched door in the place of a portcullis, and bartizans with faux arrow slits. Accounts of the stone winery’s designer, masons and source of materials vary. The design has been attributed to Hamden McIntyre, the well-known local winery designer; however, McIntyre relocated to Vina in 1887 where he took charge of the vineyard and winery of Leland Stanford. The building is unlike McIntyre’s other wineries, none of which were designed in a Gothic style. Some sources also suggest that while in Europe, Tubbs hired a French architect to draw plans for the building, brought back French masons to build it, and imported European stone for the walls. Other accounts suggest the design was inspired by the Cellar of Chateau Lafite in France. Originally, the interior was one large space with a second-story crushing floor, but in 1960, a second-floor apartment was inserted so the Chateau could be used as a home. The space was then converted into our current Tasting room though parts of the private residence remain and are used on occasion today for family guests and private events.