2002 Chateau Montelena Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley includes 9% Merlot from a vineyard in Oak Knoll and spent 16 months in 28% new French oak, with a bit of Hungarian as well. It offers up textbook notes of cherries and redcurrants, plus a hint of vanilla, all in an easy-drinking, medium to full-bodied format. The tannins are silky, and the acids are tart in this moderately concentrated effort... (JC)

Bright dark red with ruby highlights. Flamboyantly ripe aromas of candied blackberry and baking spices verge on exotic. Larger-scaled and thicker than the more classically structured 2001, yet somehow still with very good definition to its sweet dark berry, black cherry, tar and earth flavors. This rich, deep, viscous wine finishes with big but suave tannins and lingering sweetness. Our bottle seemed starved of oxygen and expanded dramatically with air. This wine's sheer concentration should keep it going for another 20 years. (ST)

Still an infant that needs even more cellaring, the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is an incredible Cabernet Sauvignon that brings to mind the 1991 Dominus (maybe not quite as voluptuous). Still vibrant and youthfully color, it has textbook notes of blackcurrants, cedar, lead pencil shavings and crushed rock-like minerality. Elegant, yet powerful and concentrated, with plenty of structure, it needs an hour decant if drinking anytime soon, and has another two to three decades of longevity.