2012 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay Napa Valley

We were invited to our friend's home for dinner last week. Our friend asked us if we wanted to have some white wine that he had already opened and taken out a cup of it for cooking. You know what they say about using wine for cooking---use only wine that you will drink. Our friend said that he is running really low on white wines so this is what he pulled out!
Since my husband and I are growing Chardonnay and trying to figure out how to vinify it, tasting this 2012 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay was a great experience for us. First of all, there was really no indication of oak notes on the wine, which for me is a positive attribute. If this Chardonnay was barrel fermented, the oakiness was very well integrated into the wine. The one word that my husband used to describe this wine was "awesome". He really liked it!
The Chateau Montelena Vintage Notes for this wine recalled the perfect weather for ripening grapes, harvesting this vintage a full 3 weeks earlier than usual. The wine was barrel aged for 10 months in 100% French oak of which 8% was new barrels. The alcohol level was 13.6%.
This called to mind the famous 1976 Judgement of Paris which was made into the film "Bottle Shock". This was a blind wine tasting in which Napa Valley wines were tasted side by side with wines from France. In this tasting, the 1973 Chateau Montelena placed first and in the process put California wines on the world stage.
For a very interesting and timely updating of the Judgement of Paris, please read this article: The hidden figures behind the Judgment of Paris
which appeared in the San Fransisco Chronicle, written by Esther Mobley, October 24, 2018. (Spoiler Alert: Patricia Gastaud-Gallagher and Joanne Dickenson DePuy)