Robert Mondavi 40th Anniversary:

An Appreciation and Celebration

by Scott W Clemens

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Robert Mondavi Winery, and this July also marked Robert Mondavi's 93rd birthday. It's been a remarkable run. Throughout the years the quality has remained very high, especially in the Private Reserve line. His Cabernets are long lived, and the Pinot Noirs are the best that Carneros has produced.

When I first started writing about wine in the late 1970s, Robert Mondavi, his winery and the Napa Valley were already amply covered by the wine press, so I tried to make my mark exploring lesser known regions such as the Santa Cruz Mountains, Santa Ynez Valley and Temecula. I assiduously avoided covering Napa in articles (though I did review Napa Valley wines). I'd been drinking Mondavi's wines since coming of age in 1970, so I was appreciative of the quality.

Though I live just 70 miles from the valley, the first time I met Bob (he signs his name Robert, but introduces himself as Bob) was in Italy in 1985. We had dinner with the Folonari family of Ruffino at their Villa di Zano, with wine writer Burton Anderson. The following day we dined at Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence. I was sitting next to Bob as he conversed in his high pitched, strained voice in Italian with one of the other guests. He has always been passionate in his manner of speech, whether in English or Italian, and I suppose his passion (for wine, for good food, for art and conviviality) is his abiding characteristic. Later that week we both attended the 600th anniversary party of the Antinori family's wine business. For the next 20 years I had the privilege of sharing many more lunches and dinners with the man, who invariably could not remember my name, but who nonetheless remained as cordial and as passionate as ever.

At the 100th anniversary of Beaulieu Vineyard we tasted wines from the 1940s to the 1990s. At the conclusion of the tasting the Panel Chairman asked if anyone had anything to say about the older wines. Ernest Gallo, who then must have been close to 90, got up and declared that he didn't see what all the fuss was about; the old wines were tired and didn't taste good, and he preferred a good glass of Hearty Burgundy. Mondavi, on the other hand, is a wine connoisseur, and came to the defense of the old wines (which were, by and large, magnificent), speaking eloquently on the charms of aged wines, and of the BV wines in particular.

Sitting next to him at another lunch at the To Kalon Vineyard, I asked him the secret of his longevity. He thought about it a second, bread poised above the olive oil, and said, "Genes, certainly. But it's more than that. You have to have a passion for living. You have to take the time to enjoy life. Eat well, drink well but moderately – I always have a glass of wine with dinner. And I have a massage every day." I suspect this latter revelation, a relaxing massage, has added a couple of decades to his life. I then asked how it was that he had accomplished so much, particularly since he didn't start his own winery until his 50s. "I've been lucky, but I'll tell you one thing; if you want to accomplish great things you have to be a visionary; you have to see what's possible. The hard part is getting it done. A lot of people have vision, but few know how to get things done. I've been blessed with a lot of people who have understood the vision and helped us to get where we wanted to go." In return, in his 80's he devoted much of his fortune to philanthropy, helping establish Copia, the Center for Food Wine and the Arts in Napa, and the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at U.C. Davis.

His was a big vision. I've heard he was a hard taskmaster, but then he never asked anyone to work harder than he did himself. He tirelessly promoted wine as the beverage of moderation, then the virtues of Napa Valley as a growing region, and finally, almost incidentally, the quality of his own wines. His work helped transform not only Napa, but wine as the beverage of choice in America.

Driving up and down the valley today is a far different experience than it was in the 1960s or 1970s. When I first visited the valley in 1969 there were fewer than 30 wineries in California and only a handful that welcomed visitors. Today there are over a thousand. The rustic quaintness of old has been replaced by tony restaurants and elaborate wine estates with visitors' centers to handle the crowds of tourists. It is, without a doubt, prettier, though the theme park atmosphere sometimes detracts from the experience. One can argue over the virtue, even the necessity, of such changes, and the ridiculously high prices that wines command these days, but overall the business has flourished, and more importantly the wines have improved.

In the 1970s and 80s California winemakers claimed to be making wines that would last as long as top flight Bordeaux -- despite the fact that hardly anyone ages wine anymore, ageability is still considered a bell weather of a wine's quality. At the time it was a claim that could not be substantiated. That takes time. Today we know that the better California wines have shown an admirable ability to age, yet they're also enjoyable when young, as illustrated by the following array of Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignons.

1979
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Like an olive tapinade with coffee notes and tart cherry-blackberry fruit. The tannin has fully resolved, leaving this a smooth wine with wonderful aged character.
90 points

1989
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Cigar box and roasted meat characters give this wine a somewhat French character. It's silky, with soft tannins, but will still develop for several more years.
89 points

1996
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Mondavi's regular Napa Valley Cab from the 1996 vintage is still available for sale at the winery. It's a deep and complete wine, well balanced, youthfully fruity on the palate, with veins of dried herbs and Bell pepper.
90 points

$150

1999
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Very special. An exceedingly complex wine with uniformly persistent from the nose through the long finish. Perfectly integrated and balanced oak and deep blackberry-cassis fruit. Very well balanced despite high alcohol. Expect it to age gracefully through the next decade.
92 points

$125

2000
Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Lovely uplifting blackberry character with perfectly integrated oak and light spice. Not as complex as the 1999, it is nonetheless a more elegant wine, with good depth and length. Excellent now, it has the potential for further aging over the next couple of decades.
91 points
$125

2001 Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Tighter than the 2000 and also more tannic, it shows subtle herbal complexity woven throughout the dense blackberry fruit and chewy, tannic finish. This is a wine that will benefit from an additional 5 to 10 years in the bottle.
86 points
$125

2002 Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Private Reserve, Cabernet Sauvignon:
The nose reveals itself in waves of cherry-berry and vanilla, the tannin is moderate and the finish long and warm. Nicely balanced with subtle complexity, it's an enigma – will it, or won't it develop into something more?
88 points
$125

"Regular" Napa Valley bottlings:
1998 Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Powerful, complex, though lacking a bit of grace at the moment, the '98 offers cassis with herbal overtones and a spicy warm finish. The tannin is still substantial but it's beginning to ameliorate. Overall it's a bit of a brute with excellent potential for further refinement with age.
89 points

2003 Robert Mondavi Winery, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon:
Cassis, an abundance of smoke and a hint of licorice, softly integrated tannins, good depth and structure. My best estimate is that it needs 5 to 7 years to really open up.
89 points
$25