Chateau Montelena - Music Pages For Matthew Cook, Artist

This beautiful winery was part of the 1970’s event that put Napa on the world wine map. Their Chardonnay won first place at a French wine competition. The winemaker at the time went on to Grgich Hills.

The grounds of this winery are fabulous in an old school way. Swans and formal gardens and a castle-like attitude.

We spent quite a while poking around here. The swans had a nest going and were a tad testy so there were warning signs about. We gave them their space but they still chased us off.

It’s a really cool place and they open earlier than everybody else so if you are like us and like to get the day started they make a good first stop.

The Reisling was interesting – in a really good way. A true representation of the grape that wasn’t just all sugar. Of course their Chardonnay is exemplary for the taste of the grape – not all buttered up like we love so much.

The Zin – this was really good, but not the fruit bomb we like at other places. It had a rustic approach to the grape that is really nice. Unfortunately, our server had to put down all other Zins while describing this one. Hey! They are all different and nobody is stupid for liking any of them.

We got to taste two cabs which were remarkably different, yet both were enjoyable.

It was an overall great experience and we would recommend this to anybody. We took a lot of pictures. We will spare you most of them.