Chateau Montelena: UCJS Top 10 Chardonnay

(This is part of our search for the UCJS Top 10 Chardonnays. Give us yours)

If you love wine and the history of wine, then you need to open a bottle of Chateau Montelena Chardonnay.

Watch our musings on this great white.

Then open up Netflix and watch the wine film classic Bottle Shock.

The film is funny, poignant and uplifting. If you’re passionate about wine, it might leave you with some tears of joy.

If you are a film buff, you will also be a bit blue since two of the stars – Alan Rickman and Dennis Farina – have both died. (John played in a number of celebrity golf events with Dennis whom John describes as one of the nice guys in entertainment compared to all the tough guy roles he played.)

So, we also toast those two fine actors.

It was produced in 2008 but it shows 1976, an important time that helped put California wines on the worldwide wine map.

As we explain, Chateau Montelena won a blind wine tasting in Paris, known as Judgment of Paris, and lo and behold, this upstart wine from the New Country won.

You will also learn about what bottle shock is in the wine fermentation process.