“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, folks,” Al Jolson, The Jazz Singer
Peter and Robert Mondavi used to run the family winery, Charles Krug Vineyards, in the Napa Valley. Since much of my family lived in the Napa area, Krug was a familiar sight on our dinner table (I even got to take a swipe at it occasionally). In the 1960s, the Mondavi brothers had a bitter parting. Robert recruited modernist architect Cliff May and built a dramatic architectural statement of a winery near Oakville in 1966.
During one of my many swings through the Napa Valley when I had the itch to start a cutting-edge wholesale distributorship in Milwaukee, I spotted what looked like a nuclear power plant off Highway 29. “Oh, that’s just Robert Mondavi,” a nonchalant local said. Enchanted, I drove into the winery and took a tour and tasting after which, pleasantly buzzed, I asked to see Mondavi himself. Rather than The Man, an intense and handsome Michael Mondavi was presented to me. Michael politely implied that I didn’t fit into the winery’s marketing plans. I never forgot my beguiling couple of hours at the winery until recently, when I had the opportunity to taste through the current Mondavi line of beauties.
First, the Chardonnay. Using a combination of innovative fermenting in French oak (or, sometimes, stainless steel, which wonderfully regulates temperature), then aging in oak casks using what the winery calls the “sur lie” method of aging, in which the wine is aged directly on expended yeast and sediment, adding a heady degree of complexity (the French call this “sur lees,” a translation of the same, or its predecessor).
The Cabernet Sauvignon is primarily sourced from vineyards around the Oakville area, including the famed, wildly intense and expensive To Kalon Vineyard. To further provide intriguing complexity, the wine is aged in 60-gallon oak barrels for 17 months.
Mondavi’s Pinot Noir is sourced from the cool, foggy Carneros area, which has delighted many a winemaker. After Mondavi’s somewhat delicate and high-wire walking in handling this finicky grape, this final wine was aged in oak for seven months. Garsh – I love those statistics!
And now, on to the tastings. Because I had a total of four different wines at different price points, I organized my notes into Part I and Part II. Here goes Part I:
1) Mondavi Chardonnay, 2008, Napa, $20. Vanilla hue (wood?) with heavy body. The nose was complex and deep with notes of oak and butterscotch with a slight tang of peach in the background. In the mouth, it was rich and nicely complex with buttery, nutty notes and a hint of vanilla (again, oak?). Clean, nicely acidic finish. A-
Note: At Trader Joe’s in Chicago, I spotted this selling for $26. As an interesting sign of the times, I stumbled upon the Mondavi line at Walgreen’s selling in the range of $11.49-$12.99. Now, you truly can mix alcohol with drugs.
2) Mondavi Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008, $45 suggested retail, according to the winery. The winery states that 93 percent of this Cabernet came from Napa’s famed To Kalon vineyard near Mondavi’s winery. I don’t often encounter To Kalon Cabernets, but they invariably fetch rather dear prices. This wine had a deep purple color with heavy, cloying body. The nose emphatically presented smoky dark cherry, plum and rich blueberry suggestions. On the palate, deeply intriguing spiciness wrapped itself around the above qualities. Long, persistent and lingering finish with nicely balancing acid. If you’re a fan of aging wine, this would reward five years of patience. A+
Round One went to the Cabernet. See you next week!
