A Visit to Sonoma Wine Country: Chateau Montelena

This is the second in a series of travel essays about a recent visit to California’s wine country.  This past week, Marieta and I were joined by close friends and fellow wine aficionados Mark and Tina Napolitano in beautiful Sonoma County, where we enjoyed tastings at several local wineries.  Today, I shall focus on the experience of visiting and tasting one of the most famous wines in the history of California wine production — Chateau Montelena.

Visiting the famous winery Chateau Montelena is like going back to your 20-year high school reunion and checking out whatever happened to the prom queen.

Is she still hot?

Sadly, no.

Now, she’s become a bloated glob of disappointment.

That’s basically Chateau Montelena in a simple cork twist.

I very much wanted to like Chateau Montelena — both the wine and the tasting experience.  Unfortunately, I was grossly disappointed by both.  My colleagues too shared this monumental letdown.

We all knew the marvelous true story of how this famed winery transformed the modern wine scene, and initially put California on the map as a serious producer of fine wine.  In 1976, everything connected to great wine had to be from France.  But Chateau Montelena’s entry into the blind tasting contest at Paris, and winning the top prize, stunned everyone — especially the French.  That seismic event essentially created what became a sort of gold rush to the west.  Only this time, prospectors were in a quest for the perfect cabs, pinots, and zins.

The early story of Chateau Montelena was captured in the vastly underrated 2008 film Bottle Shock starring Alan Rickman (best known as villain Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard movie).  It’s a wonderful underdog story of how a few people changed an entire industry, and altered wine consumption habits and attitudes.

The Chateau Montelena Vineyard is conveniently located just north of Calistoga, a short drive from Sonoma Country where we were staying.  From the outside, it looks every bit as one might expect.

What did I expect?

Well, I knew how good this wine was supposed to be — especially anything white.  I approached the tasting with a mix of curiosity and reverence for what this vineyard had done to alter history.  Truth is, I ran to the vineyard and snapped some pictures, thinking that these vines were what Les Paul to guitars or Julia Child is to cooking.  We are talking game-changers here.

The wine room was typical of most Sonoma County/Napa County tastings.  We entered a comfortable room which was a part gift shop and part wine bar.  The wine bar was staffed with knowledgeable stewards who probably make a commission on sales and something called the “wine club.”

This tasting was far more expensive than the others we tried.  Priced at $25 for four (or five) 2-ounce glasses, this was far more costly than anything else we encountered ( as walk-in visitors).  Most tastings in the area run from $5 to $15.  One would expect nearly double the price here to mean double the quality or presentation.  Regretfully, it did not meet either standard and was by far the most disappointing experience we encountered in the entire tasting experience of perhaps a dozen wines.

We sampled two whites and two reds.  One more perhaps, but I admit to being so underwhelmed I forgot.  We enjoyed the sauvignon blanc, but it wasn’t anything particularly special.  The chardonnay should have blown us away, given its lofty pedigree.  Instead, it seemed rather bland and left no lasting impression on anyone in our group.  The two reds, a cabernet followed by zinfandel were even less memorable.

After the tasting, we received the obligatory “please join our wine club” pitch which was a bit more heavy-handed than others we experienced.  While most of the vineyards put no pressure on visitors whatsoever to join or buy anything, we felt a little more intimidated here at Chateau Montelena.  Unfortunately, the wine is so ridiculously overrated and overpriced made this an instant rejection and left us all tremendously disappointed.  It was easy to say no and not come back.

This one one of the few wineries in the entire Sonoma region that is probably worth avoiding altogether.  As much as I appreciate the tremendous impact this maker had on the contemporary wine trade, this turned out to be a monumental disappointment to everyone in our group.

Like the prom queen, this wine is now living on its past laurels.

Correction:  In my original article, I wrote the location of the vineyard as being in between Santa Rosa and Calistoga.  The actual location is just north of Calistoga about 17 miles from Santa Rosa.  Of course, it is also over in Napa County, as well.

Update: Following the publication of this review, I heard from a representative of the winery, who wrote the following cordial e-mail.  Pretty classy.  This is published with her approval:

Nolan,

I hope this finds you well. I am contacting you on behalf of your recent Chateau 

Montelena visit and blog post. I am so sorry to hear that you did not have the 

experience you expected while you were visiting the winery. I understand that 

everyone has very different preferences when it comes to wine.  I am happy to 

discuss your experience further with you if you would like. 

I also wanted to mention that Chateau Montelena is located in a sub-region of 

Napa Valley known as Calistoga, not Sonoma which is more west. I say this 

because the winery was instrumental in officially getting Calistoga listed as an 

official wine growing region (AVA) in 2010. 

Again, I wish you and your friends had a better experience. If you are ever in 

wine country again, please let me know. 

Sincerely,

Sonia 

READ:  My wine reviews