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Chateau Montelena, Napa Valley Chardonnay, 2023

White Wine from California, United States
by Chateau Montelena
$89.99
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This is the wine that changed the map: Montelena's 1973 Chardonnay took first place in the white flight at the 1976 Judgment of Paris, and the estate has been making Chardonnay in the same restrained register ever since. 2023 was Napa's long, cool anomaly, with delayed budbreak, temperatures that rarely pushed past the seventies through spring and summer, and a harvest that stretched from September 8 all the way to October 10, which is very late by modern standards. That extra hang time at low heat is exactly what Chardonnay wants: the 2023 came in at 13.9% alcohol and spent ten months in French oak, only a quarter of it new, so the fruit and the acidity do the talking. Winemaker Matt Crafton has kept the house style firmly on the citrus-and-orchard-fruit side of Napa Chardonnay rather than the butter-and-toast side. Lovely now, and the estate's track record says it will reward a decade or more in the cellar.

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Decanter

95 points

"Vivid, pure citrus expression with a mineral character, like the squeeze of a just-picked Meyer lemon over an oyster-shell, laced with white floral notes. Linear in its youthful exuberance, it shows a fabulous core of dense citrus and orchard fruit, with a lemon-oil richness underpinning the fruit that maintains a purely delicate edge. Crisp, crunchy acidity provides shape and drive, while enticing Marcona almond notes add some depth and texture through the finish."

More about Chateau Montelena

Wine Details

  • Grape Variety

    Chardonnay

  • Vintage

    2023

  • Size

    750ml

  • Farming Practice

    Sustainable

  • Sweetness

    Dry

  • Body

    Full Bodied

Flatiron's Take

From the Importer

What has to say about this wine:

Tasting Notes & Food Pairings

Perfect Pairings

Roast chicken with lemon and thyme, Dungeness crab, seared scallops, halibut with brown butter, or a young Gruyere.

Tasting Profile

Green apple, lime leaf, pear and orange blossom with a light toasted-nut edge from the barrel. Medium-bodied and taut, with bright acidity and a chalky, mineral finish. Dry, clean and long.

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