‘74 Villa Mt. Eden - anyone have info?

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I’ll post a TN a little later, but this was quite a surprise. I think the winery is defunct? Anyone have an idea where these grapes go now? I’ll post a TN later, but look at that color! Very much alive.
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I still have some of the 1978, but haven’t heard of their wine for a long time.

The Villa Mt Eden winery was located where Plump Jack is now. Nils Venge was the winemaker. The brand is owned by the Ste Michelle people and made at their Conn Creek winery on the Trail. Nils’ office reminded me of martin Mull’s furniture act.

Excellent wine. Had it last year.

The 1979 was a delight last year! No idea as to what happened to the winery and when…

Is that a Rudy?! That color is amazingly young looking-congrats

This is very helpful :slight_smile:. Plump Jack, huh?

  • 1974 Villa Mt. Eden Cabernet Sauvignon - USA, California, Napa Valley (6/27/2020)
    High shoulder fill. Cork crumbled and small amount of seepage under the capsule, but seems well kept. Amazingly youthful. I would have guessed this was a mid ‘00’s wine. Vibrant dark color, no bricking. Elegant fruity nose, with black currants and eucalyptus and just a hint of petrol. Palate is plush, showing wonderful fur fruit—mostly black currant variety. Fine chunky tannins still present but mostly integrated. Strong finish. It’s not often that a ‘03 Montrose is eclipsed, but it was on this night. (95 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

This was my thought as well, but why would anyone spoof this one? The cork looked appropriate but I couldn’t find a vintage on it. Even so, it was worth the $80 I paid at auction—no matter what it was.

It has been years since I had the 1978, but I agree. Excellent wine.

There are a number of wineries that made excellent wine in the 70s that either are not there anymore, don’t make as good wine anymore, or just don’t get any attention.

For example, one of the star wineries in the early to mid 1970s was Sterling (when Ric Forman was the winemaker). In addition to Villa Mt. Eden, I also remember having excellent Cabernet from Burgess.

Today, I still drink wines from old wineries like Stony Hill and Mount Eden (although not enough from Mount Eden). I think it is a shame that so many California wine lovers ignore the great old wineries still making wine the way they always have in favor of the flavors of the month.

Mount Eden and Stony Hill are getting plenty of love these days.

Legendary wines have been made from the Burgess property. Tom Burgess died and his son Steve took over. That is the last I heard.

Sterling’s business model didn t work out but Ric is making his style of wines at his own winery.

Sometimes the wine biz here reminds me of the restaurant biz…you’re hot for a while then somebody else comes along. Making wine is fun; selling it is a bitch.

I remember buying these as a college student in the early 80’s when I was at UC Davis. One of my roommate’s was into wine and we found these at the local Safeway. We bought a bunch of these and the '78 Mondavi Cab. Both were very good. But, being under 21, everything was good at that time!

Ed

Notes from a CellarTracker entry. 1974-1979 Villa Mt. Eden Cabernet Sauvignons blindtasted - CellarTracker

According to these notes the vines were only 3 years old for that '74 bottling.

Great note and awesome feedback from everyone! Have a bottle of 1980 Reserve, and now I’m really pumped to open it!

Fun story about this wine. I had this with Nils in 2006. He was excited to tell me that on the bottling day it was the first time he met Helen Turley. He had hired the only staffing agency in St. Helena at the time to help him bottle and he said he went out to get them started and there was this striking 6 foot 4 young woman. They bottled the wine off of a 3 spout filler and Helen filled bottles for the whole bottling. The 1978 is also a fantastic bottle if you can find it.

In the late 70’s my wine tasting group had a blind tasting of the same group of 1974 Cabernets that had been tasted by a publication (I think it was the Grapevine but it could have been Connoisseurs’ Guide), the top rated wines at the time. I don’t remember if Heitz Martha’s had been released yet, but it included Mt. Eden and Phelps Insignia and a few others. Our group had the wines rated in almost the same order as the publication. I both cases the Villa Mt. Eden came out first.

Wow! No idea this was such a well known winery. I picked it up at auction just to complete a case. Will definitely seek out more in the future.

This might help you. About Nils

There are a number of wineries that made excellent wine in the 70s that either are not there anymore, don’t make as good wine anymore, or just don’t get any attention.

Also a couple of 1978 Mount Veeder Bernstein Vineyard.

Had the '76 Villa Mt Eden CS yesterday , doesn’t have the rep of the '74 or '78, but this was a classic old school cab with good acids, lots of herbs, nice length. A drought year but no roasted notes.