Chateau Montelena is a Napa Valley winery most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic "Judgement of Paris" wine competition. Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay 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 producer. Chateau Montelena was featured in the 2008 film Bottle Shock.
This past weekend I was in Napa for a quick wine tasting and "get out of LA" trip. I've never been to Napa but I've heard great things. While there I probably went to 8 different wineries for tasting and tours but none of them stuck out as much as Chateau Montelena. For those of you who aren't familiarly with Chateau Montelena, this is the winery that pretty much put Napa Valley on the map. Back in 1976 there was a wine tasting with France's … more