Chateau Montelena Chardonnay

Chateau Montelena is one of Napa Valley’s oldest estate vineyards, having been purchased in 1882 by a San Francisco entrepreneur who built an impressive, European-looking chateau and hired a French winemaker. Nearly a century later, in 1969, an attorney named Jim Barrett led a group of investors who bought the winery with the notion of replanting vineyards that had been allowed to go fallow. In 1976 the winery won international fame when its 1973 Chardonnay took first place in the blind tasting in Paris that has since inspired books and movies. The winery is now owned by the Barrett family, with son Bo Barrett working as master winemaker. The estate includes 125 acres of vineyards and produces about 40,000 cases of wine annually.