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Mondavi celebrates 50th year with new wine
Constellation Brands’ iconic Robert Mondavi Winery celebrated its 50th anniversary this week with a three-day media event at its Napa Valley facility, at which it officially launched a new wine, Maestro, in honour of its founder, who died in 2008.
Margrit Mondavi, Warren Winiarski holding a bottle of the 1966 vintage (Photo: Roger Morris)
Robert Mondavi is widely recognised as having been a galvanising force during the last quarter of the 20th Century for better winemaking, as well as for recognising wine as a positive cultural force, not only in California but worldwide.
The first release of Robert Mondavi “Maestro” is a 2013 Bordeaux red blend featuring 59% merlot and 25% cabernet franc selected from its Oakville vineyards and having a suggested retail price of $50. In total, 18,000 cases were produced.
“Maestro is a serious wine with a humble soul,” says long-time Robert Mondavi director of winemaking, Genevieve Janssens. “It celebrates both Robert Mondavi’s work and his wisdom.” A different combination of grapes will be assembled each year for the Maestro blend.
Guest wine writers also tasted a symbolic 50 Mondavi wines plus and additional “one to grow on” over the three days. These included 25 of the 48 bottled vintages of the winery’s premier brand, the Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, which in recent years has added the name of its cru vineyard, “To Kalon,” to the label.
Another high point of the commemoration was the tasting of the first vintage of the Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, the 1966, at a gala dinner attended by Margrit Mondavi, Robert’s widow.
The event honoured an impressive list of winemakers and vineyard managers who have worked at the winery, including such current and past wine producers as Paul Hobbs, Zelma Long and Warren Winiarski, who was the winemaker of record for the 1966 launch vintage.
“The winery building wasn’t finished,” Winiarski recalled prior to the dinner, “and we had painters, carpenters and plumbers working around us as we were making the wine.”
The Robert Mondavi Corporation had its public stock offering in 1993, then was purchased by Constellation 11 years later for $1.36 billion, which included other properties and brands in addition to the original Napa Valley winery.
The new Maestro wine