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Have you ever seen somebody pour a freshly opened bottle into a decanter and wondered why they need a fancy container to pour from when the bottle is perfectly good? Well the short answer is this: decanting makes your wine better! Ok, so now that we know we should decant our wines, we encounter the tricky art of knowing how long to decant each type of wine… Let us demystify the decanter and help you to coax your liquid gems to their peak potential.

Continue reading Demystifying the Decanter

Being raised in a household of five you learn very quickly that every person is a unique individual, with their own quirks and idiosyncrasies. Wine grapes seem to share that quality. And like us, each one of them has it’s own characteristics that make it unlike the others.

Read these personality profiles of some of the classic varietals and decide for yourself which one you think best fits your personality. You might be pleasantly surprised what you learn about your favorite grape, and maybe yourself as well!

Continue reading Which Wine Grape Are You?

During the December holidays, while our friends in Chicago and Cleveland and Buffalo and Boston groaned under the weight of ice-age-level snow storms, we here in California were complaining for a different reason: Too much sun!

Continue reading Waiting for Rain in the Land of the Sun

On the occasion of our release of the highly-anticipated 2010 vintage of our client-favorite Don Zofanor Meritage, it’s worth exploring together what makes wine so special.

Certainly wine is nothing less than what’s in the glass — and by that measure, the thoroughly delicious 2010 Meritage is very special indeed. But truly great wine is about more than just taste. It’s about terroir. It’s about tradition. And most of all, it’s about people.

Continue reading Truth in Wine: Uncovering the Real Deal in Mendoza

Today after 18 months of rigorous testing and a final OK from the FAA for flight patterns and the TTB for the first ever licensing of DDTC (drone direct to consumer), Montesquieu is proud to announce its partnership with AmazonWineAir, a new division of mega online retailer Amazon, on the world’s first ever drone wine shipment service.

Continue reading GROUNDBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT – MONTESQUIEU WINE DRONES TO COMMENCE SERVICE, GUARANTEED 3 HOUR DELIVERY FROM PURCHASE TIME

On the heels of strong reviews of their 2012 wines, Napa winemakers are giddily predicting another outstanding vintage in 2013. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Bordeaux.

Bordeaux’s 2013 harvest saw its share of problems, and in the months since, many chateaux seem to have projected a cautiously optimistic attitude while saying as little as possible — perhaps to avoid deflating demand.

Not Stephane Derenoncourt, though. The world-renowned winemaker who consults for a number of Bordeaux properties has now delivered an early assessment of the region’s 2013 vintage, and he’s done so with refreshing candor.

Continue reading Telling It Like It Is: Stephane Derenoncourt Calls Out Bordeaux’s 2013 Vintage

There are big stars and exclamation points in my calendar every year next to the date for Premiere Napa Valley. It’s Napa’s best wine event, a four hour marathon tasting (that you sprint to sample as much as possible!) of 225 of the valley’s finest wines, followed by a chance to bid on these once-in-a-lifetime five, ten, or twenty case lots. Everyone’s ‘A game’ material is on display, and the chance to spend time with each producer as you taste their wine is priceless insight on what makes their wine and the Napa Valley community so special.

Continue reading Believe the 2012 Vintage Hype – Napa Struts Its Stuff at Premiere Napa Valley 2014

The defining crisis of our time – a tragic lack of clean water – is ravaging our globe, especially drought-prone areas like Eastern Africa. Unwilling to sit by as millions die from preventable diseases, we at Montesquieu Winery are doing everything in our power to make a difference. That’s why we’re pleased to announce that our Wine To Water Rosé Collection has sold out, raising $20,000 for clean water in Ethiopia.

In defiance of the scourge of dirty water, we designed this collection as our tribute to the power of love. “Wait,” you might ask. “What’s love got to do with it?”

Continue reading Love Is in the Air: Celebrating the Spirit of The Wine To Water Rosé Collection

Wine Spectator Magazine is the most popular wine publication in the U.S. — and it’s not even close. So naturally, they receive tens of thousands of wine samples each year, from wineries all around the world. The editors have no shortage of incredible wines to feature in their magazine.

And yet, of the 15,000 wines they reviewed for the past fifteen issues, they chose only three wines to feature on their cover. By our count, that makes our 2009 Derenoncourt Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon, if not one-in-a-million, at least 1 in 5,000!

Continue reading Our Derenoncourt Lake County Cab: 1 in 5,000!

Dec. 19, 2013 – Thanks to a lot of enthusiasm, little bit of effort and one very special wine – Michel Rolland’s2003 Bonne Nouvelle – 1,800 more people are set to receive the thing they need most: a source for clean water.

Last month, with the holidays in full swing, we at Montesquieu Winery wanted to harness the spirit of giving to bring good news to those who need it most. So, led by our CEO Fonda Hopkins, we set a goal: Let’s raise $25,000 by Christmas Day for CNN Hero Doc Hendley and his organization Wine To Water to dig several more wells for people in Southern Ethiopia. Our Montesquieu wine brokers and clients enthusiastically took up the cause, and in the space of only a few weeks, we raised enough to provide clean water for over 1,800 Ethiopians – and a grand total of 10,000 people in Africa since 2012.

Continue reading We Did It! Montesquieu Winery turn wine into water for 1,800 people