Chateau Montelena tasting

Lynne and I attended a tasting of Chateau Montelena wines the other night at Liner & Elsen in Portland. For those unfamiliar with California wine lore, Chateau Montelena is the winery that produced the chardonnay that rocked the French wine industry in 1976. The story is the focus of the movie Bottle Shock, which is not available on DVD. You can read the whole account on the CM website.

The tasting was hosted by managing director Greg Ralston, a Portland State University graduate who has been with the winery 21 years. We went to the tasting because we had seen the movie on the recommendation of our friends John and Lea. I have to admit the movie was OK and if it hadn't been for the historical significance and my interest in wine, I probably wouldn't have liked it at all. In chit chatting with Greg afterwards, he acknowledged that few things outside of the basic plot of the movie were actually true. There was lots of embellishment for Hollywood's sake. Greg noted that when Montelena was started in 1972 there were 12 wineries in the Napa Valley. By 1978, that had shot up to 112. He said that after the movie was released in August 2008, visits to the winery shot way up and they got more single-bottle orders of chardonnay online, but overall sales did not increase.

But back to the wine. We tasted a beautiful and not overdone zinfandel, six cabernets from 1999 to 2005 and a chardonnay. If there's one thing I took away from the tasting it was that over the years, Montelena has remained true to its heritage and discipline of making table wines that complement food. They have avoided the trends that so characterise California style wines -- from big butter bomb chards to over fruited and hot zins. Greg said that his wines are probably more popular in Europe and other parts of the world than in America for these reasons. The style is definitely more subtle and less fruit forward -- much more in the French style.

I have a lot of respect for this approach and believe that its a viewpoint that many Oregon winemakers also aspire to. I'm particularly impressed with the desire to stick with a French white burgundy style of chardonnay that stays the same year in and year out. This style of chardonnay is an essential part of any well kept wine cellar. It's so classic, crisp and refreshing. A few Oregon wineries are serious about creating a chardonnay in this style, especially Stoller, Chehalem and Domaine Serene.

These are definitely not trendy wines. They are not meals unto themselves and they are not delicious cocktail wines. But, they are great wines, with a great story that will stand the test of the ages even though the winery is less than 40 years old.