Description
Notes from Current Winemaker, Matt Crafton, April 2024:
Nose
This is a beautiful, cool-vintage Cabernet. Ten years removed from release, this wine is still incredibly lively, brimming with fresh raspberry and blackberry. In contrast to the fruit is a latent earthiness that is brambly and woodsy, but laser-focused in intensity. While there’s a modicum of barrel influence, the soft notes of smoke and tar shift throughout the background, lending stature and establishment; think cherry-pipe tobacco rather than campfire.
Palate
The 2010’s acid backbone is the foundation from which everything else builds. Raspberry candy, kirsch and peppermint arise sequentially, tied together with delicate, almost satin-like tannins that fill the mouth handily without being cloying. Behind them come wet-stone minerality, cedar and a garrigue-like herbal quality that slowly shifts from saline to sage.
Finish
Not to be outdone, the finish
is punctuated by dark chocolate, espresso and fruit leather. The key here is grace. The 2010 is elegant and graceful; those two qualities permeate every facet of its identity. And while this wine is complex and drinking handsomely right now, it will continue to age just as gracefully for another two to three decades.
Blend
98.75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1.25% Cabernet Franc
Critical Acclaim
95 points Vinous
Bright red-ruby. Exceptional aromatic purity and complexity to the aromas of blueberry, cassis, cocoa powder, mocha, spices and minerals; some very ripe berry pie notes emerged with air. Wonderfully creamy, silky and deep; an utterly seamless wine with the underlying soil-driven minerality to energize and frame its fleshy flavors of dark fruits and spices. This is yet another 2010 whose impression of refinement belies the weather extremes of the growing season. Finishes with building but perfectly integrated tannins and outstanding length. (ST)
94 points Wine Advocate
Medium to deep garnet in color, the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is a little mute at this stage, offering up glimpses of crushed blackberry, red plums and wild blueberries notes with touches of pencil shavings, dried Mediterranean herbs and forest floor. Medium-bodied, it has a velvety backbone and mouth-filling red and blue fruits, finishing long and earthy. (LPB)
93 points James Suckling
Extremely attractive aromas of asphalt, blueberry and rose petal. Full body with very well-integrated tannins and a long, long finish. Montelena estate shows a refinement and balance one expects in traditional Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.
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