Hope it turns out well! This bottle was purchased at the retail store where I was working, bought on release and temp controlled cellared since. I guess file under no great wines, only great bottles. For Montelena all I have left are one each of 1997, 1998 and 2003. Montelena’s futures pricing was right up there with Ridge Monte Bello for crazy value.
I had a '97 Montelena a few weeks back that was hollowing out and showing past it’s prime. I had a six pack from release and started getting into it maybe 5 years ago. This was the 4th of 6. None of the first 3 were anything more than good, but this is the first real disappointment. Given '96 cabs have shown more longevity than the more highly touted '97s, that’s a bummer the '96 didn’t show well.
I finally got around to my ‘96 Montelena, and, thankfully, it was nothing like your bottle, Marc. Initially, it tasted tired, but it blossomed with air. Dark cherries, tobacco, minerals, mostly resolved tannins, with a smidge of bittersweet chocolate on the long finish. It was excellent.
Marc was always tasting at least half a dozen wines behind everyone else but always produced excellent notes and still does.
“A wine sacrificed to my ego, having enjoyed the idea of possessing it and always “knowing” it was going to improve.”
Man this is such a perfect phrasing for a phenomenon that everyone who cellars wines, instantly understands as soon as they read it.
As I mentioned on your Insta Diane, I’m opening one today…fingers crossed it shows more like yours did!! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
And as always, thank you for the notes Marc! I very much enjoy reading them!
Beautiful notes, and great variety in wine all vividly and carefully described. We really enjoyed Mara zins in the late 90s or early 2000s. These were not easy wines to find. I didn’t realize they were Dolinsek but that makes perfect sense given the characteristics in Bedrock’s versions. So interesting and thanks for that detail!
Always appreciate it when someone has a better experience with a wine than I! Glad Diane found a winner and fingers crossed for Rich. There’s little joy in chronicling a disappointing wine, would rather be proven wrong. “No great wines, only great bottles.”
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Thank you Jack, appreciated. Charles also made a Luvisi Ranch vineyard designate Zinfandel. I can’t recall every having a Zin from this vineyard by a different producer. Maybe Mssr. Hill knows the score here.
Sure. I don’t remember the wines we had being designated, but it was a ways back. They definitely could have been. I remember a pinkish label. I was told they were special and indeed they were. Wine searcher shows a few still available from Mara directly.
Happy to report that my bottle was absolutely singing! Like you said Marc, no great wines (especially with aged bottles)…but i got lucky and this one was great!
When Marc mentions the bell pepper in Togni it really brings to mind their wine. That and Sociando Mallet are the only producers where I can deal with the pyrazines.
I can’t even deal with green bell peppers in my curry, which is a breach of my blood duty.
As is usual with my experiences reading Marc’s cool notes, there are always a couple that would fall within my radar of interests, and it’s always an exercise to google the wines just to make sure you can make sure that it’s either a white or a red. Thanks for the TNs.