Chateau Montelena is a

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in Napa County in California's Wine Country. It was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) on January 27, 1981. Napa Valley is considered one of the premier ...

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic "Judgment of Paris"

wine competition A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages, categories, and/or brands of wine. Wine competitions generally use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges. Types of ...

. Chateau Montelena's

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

was in competition with nine other wines from France and California under blind tasting. All 11 judges awarded their top scores to either the Chardonnays from Chateau Montelena or Chalone Winery, another

California wine California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted ''Vitis vinifera'' vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. I ...

producer. A fictionalized version of Chateau Montelena's historic victory was featured in the 2008 film ''

Bottle Shock ''Bottle Shock'' is a 2008 American comedy-drama film based on the 1976 wine competition termed the "Judgment of Paris", when California wine defeated French wine in a blind taste test. It stars Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman and is ...

''.

History

Tubbs

In 1882, entrepreneur Alfred L. Tubbs bought of land just north of Calistoga at the foot of

Mount Saint Helena Mount Saint Helena (Wappo: Kanamota, "Human Mountain") is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Fiel ...

. Tubbs had made a fortune from the rope business during the Gold Rush, and knew the area from visits to the White Sulphur Springs Resort nearby. He planted vines, and by 1896 Chateau Montelena was the seventh largest winery in the Napa Valley. With the onset of

Prohibition in the United States In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...

, winemaking ceased at the Chateau and in the period that followed Tubbs sold grapes but did not make wine. In 1958 the Tubbs family sold the Chateau to Yort Wing Frank, a Chinese electrical engineer, and his wife Jeanie, who were looking for a retirement home. The Franks created a garden in the style of their homeland, and excavated Jade Lake. The Chinese garden is a popular spot for picnics, although access is now limited to members of the Chateau wine club.

Paschich

In 1968, Lee and Helen Paschich bought the property, and brought in as partners lawyer James L. Barrett and property developer Ernest Hahn. Barrett replanted the

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

and installed winemaking equipment in the historic buildings and it began producing wines again in 1972, with

Mike Grgich Miljenko "Mike" Grgić (born April 1, 1923) is a Croatian-American winemaker in California. He was born into a winemaking family in the town of Desne on Croatia's coastal region of Dalmatia. He is notable for being the winemaker behind the 197 ...

employed as winemaker and who also orchestrated the winery’s entire design. Four years later, the Chateau Montelena 1973 Chardonnay won first place among the chardonnays and white Burgundies entered in the "

Judgment of Paris Judgement (or US spelling judgment) is also known as ''adjudication'', which means the evaluation of evidence to decision-making, make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. The term has at least five distinct u ...

" wine competition. A bottle of that vintage is in the

Smithsonian National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

. In 2004 Chateau Montelena was subject to claims by

James Laube James Laube ( ) is an American wine critic, writing for ''Wine Spectator'' since 1980, a full-time staff writer since 1983, with expertise on California wine. Laube has published the books ''California's Great Cabernets'', ''California's Great Chard ...

of ''

Wine Spectator ''Wine Spectator'' is an American lifestyle magazine that focuses on wine and wine culture, and gives out ratings to certain types of wine. It publishes 15 issues per year with content that includes news, articles, profiles, and general entertain ...

'' that its wines were tainted by TCA. Following an independent laboratory test confirmation, Jim Barrett announced the measures taken to eliminate the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole in the Montelena winery.

San Francisco Tasting Room

Since late 2011, Chateau Montelena has set up a satellite tasting room within The Westin St. Francis, in

Union Square Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Terminated sale

In July 2008 it was announced that Michel Reybier, owner of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

winery Cos d'Estournel, had purchased Chateau Montelena from Jim and Bo Barrett for an undisclosed sum, a transaction which at the time of announcement Robert Parker described as "one of the biggest stories in my 30 years in the wine field". An executive committee, made up of Bo Barrett, managing director Greg Ralston, and the winemaker at Cos d'Estournel Dominique Arangoits, with Jean-Guillaume Prats, general manager at Cos d'Estournel as president were set to oversee the 2008 vintage, with a future strategy to expand the brand and replant 75% of the vineyards. By November 2008, however, the agreement was cancelled. The termination of the transaction by Chateau Montelena was stated to be due to the fact that Reybier Investments had been "unable to meet its obligations".

References

External links

Official Chateau Montelena website
{{Napa County, California Wineries in Napa Valley Companies based in Napa County, California History of wine History of the San Francisco Bay Area National Register of Historic Places in Napa County, California Food and drink companies established in 1882 1882 establishments in California 1970s in California Wineries in California American companies established in 1882