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<\/a>Not too long ago, I was able to have dinner with Chateau Montelena head winemaker, Matt Crafton to learn about what he\u2019s been up to. And I have to say, I loved so much about what I heard. I love that he\u2019s not afraid to shake things up a bit and take the winery in new directions. That can certainly be a challenge in an estate as storied as Montelena. He\u2019s done so much work around sustainability and spearheaded the largest vineyard replant and redesign in the winery\u2019s history. But more that than, he\u2019s not resting on past success and is always looking for ways to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Chateau Montelena Past \u2018Judgement\u2019 Looms Large<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
To be sure, taking over for a storied wine estate has to be one of the more difficult challenges a winemaker faces in their career. Taking over for one that made headlines as one of the winners of the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine competition is even more daunting. But that\u2019s exactly the position that Matt found himself when he took over as headwimaker in 2014. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little background for those not in the know – The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, commonly referred to as the \u201cJudgment of Paris,\u201d was a wine competition organized in Paris on May 24, 1976. The competition consisted of a blind tasting comparison of French and American wines featuring Chardonnay and red Bordeaux varietals. Given that Napa was just an upstart at the time and France had a long history of producing fine wine, no one expected the American wines to fare well. But in the shock heard around the world, a Napa wine was voted the top wine in both categories. Not only was the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena declared the top wine, there were three American wines voted in the top five for the white wines. The 1973 Stag\u2019s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon took top honors for red wine. Needless to say, this was a game changer and an iconic moment in American wine. So seismic was the moment that today bottles of Chateau Montelena and Stag\u2019s Leap Wine Cellars are part of the collection at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of American History.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you think of the sort of old guard of Napa, it\u2019s natural to wonder how many of them are left. Some have been sold off, some have crumbled, and people may have thought the same about Montelena. But it still endures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of its famous past, I just assumed that everyone grabs Chateau Montelena wines whenever they see them. Surely the pedigree and the name gives them an advantage. \u201cIt does, but then it doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Matt. \u201cLots of people know us, but when was the last time you had our Chardonnay?\u201d I know I\u2019d had the wine on several occasions, but couldn\u2019t think of a recent time I\u2019d enjoyed it. For sure, I\u2019ve had their estate Cabernet Sauvignon more recently than the Chardonnay. But I realized that I sort of took for granted that everyone was drinking it. Of course, I taste a lot of wines and it was great for me to come full circle and enjoy these wines again. As a person that leans more Chardonnay than Cab, I so appreciated the precision of the Chardonnay. And yeah, after throughly enjoying it at dinner, I made it a point to remedy the lack of Chateau Montelena Chardonnay in my life and headed right out to Total Wine and grabbed a couple of bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking on the Challenge of a Legend<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Having been at Chateau Montelena since 2008, Matt had seen his share of change and upheaval. The winery was \u201calmost\u201d sold right when he started. \u201dI had literally just started and was in shock when they told me that it was going to be sold,\u201d recalls Matt. But luckily things didn\u2019t work out and owner Jim Barrett realized the gold mine that Montelena still was. After his father died in 2013, Bo Barrett returned to the winery as CEO and became committed to investing in the future of the winery. \u201cHe was like \u2018we need to invest in the future and we need to look forward. If we\u2019re going to keep this place and keep it going, we have to make better wine, grow better grapes,\u2019\u201d Matt recalls. In other words, they knew they could no longer rest on their laurels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matt, as the assistant winemaker at the time in 2013, took the mandate to heart. Not long after, he was promoted to head winemaker in 2014 and set to work improving this storied estate. \u201cI was like, if we\u2019re going to do this, we have to get serious. The status quo is no longer good enough.\u201d And fortunately for him, Bo gave hm a great degree of latitude. Even if the freedom sometimes caused a bit of angst. \u201cOf course I was totally terrified. I mean, here was this guy who had been a winemaker himself for like 35 years. It was crazy how OK he was with everything I wanted to do. He could have easily been like \u201cyou\u2019re insane\u201d but he didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of the vision was making wines of great precision and expression. And for Matt, it was also important to invest in a sustainable future to ensure the winery\u2019s longevity. He also understood that they were a bit of an underdog. \u201cFor a family business, we have to be able to compete with big corporate businesses.\u201d Part of that is getting out and re-connecting with wine club members and other fans of the wines. \u201cIt\u2019s part of what we\u2019re doing here,\u201d he says of our dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finding himself at the helm, he knew there were some things he needed to change. The first thing he did was get rid of what he calls SOP (\u201cstandard operating procedures\u201d) and re-evaluated everything. \u201cWhen you try to simplify things at a high level, it can be good, but it also takes away from the special, individual aspects of what you\u2019re doing.\u201d And he certainly wanted to take a more specialized approach and move away from doing things the way they had always been done. \u201cI was like, we\u2019re going to treat every single pick as if it was the only lot in the entire world. And sure, it sounds very specious and like grandstanding, but the mentality shift had to happen.\u201d For Matt, if he was going to make world class wine, then he had to pay attention to every single detail. And not that Montelena didn\u2019t take care and pay attention, but essentially Matt was leveling up. \u201cOnce you open up the opportunity to people to start thinking about things differently, so many good things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n