Robert Mondavi, the great innovator and entrepreneur, passed away today at the age of 94. Mondavi was an incredible man that changed the face of wine as we know it today. Without him, Napa Valley would not be what it is and the American wine industry would be a much different place.

Check out Napa Valley Register's wonderful article on Mondavi and his life HERE.

Bruce Willis Opens Wine Bar
Bruce Willis hosted a pre-opening party at the Bowery Wine Company last week, where he's a part owner. The wine bar is set to open it's doors this weekend in New York's East Village neighborhood. Willis invited his fellow celebrity friends "Sopranos" stars Vincent Curatola and John Ventimiglia, and even took a turn behind the bar serving drinks. Sounds like a fun party to me, next time send me an invite Bruce!
Read more here.

US rosé sales are up 53%
Well it seems that Americans have become quite fond of their White Zin. As my regular readers know, I'm a rosé lover, so this is nothing surprising to me. I think it's about time that the country is realizing just how great a blush wine can be!
Read more here.


Mike Grgich joins the Vintner Hall of Fame
One of Napa Valley's most recognizable names (and hardest to say!), Miljenko "Mike" Grgich, was inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame on March 7th in honor of his many contributions to the winemaking community. This honor also comes at the same time as his 50th vintage of wine in Napa. For those unfamiliar with him, Grgich is the winemaker that crafted the Chardonnay that beat France in the Judgement of Paris in 1976.
Read more here.



UC Davis - Olive Oil Research Center
UC Davis is known as one of the foremost places in the world to study viticulture, now they hope to become that for Olive Oil as well. The center opened in January as part of the Robert Mondavi Institute. Olives have been growing in California for more than a century, and collectively produce 500,000 gallons of olive oil each year. But compared to the 75 million gallons Americans consume (America is the fourth largest consumer in the world), it's only a small fraction. So the next time you're in Napa Valley, maybe you can stop by for an olive oil tasting after you have some wine.
Read more here.

One of the newest wineries to make a splash is the Clif Family Winery. If that name sounds familiar, you're not alone. A lot of you are probably familiar with Clif Bars, which are wonderful energy bars that I highly recommend if you haven't tried them before. Carrot Cake is my personal favorite. Or their other popular brand Luna Bars, which I love too. Their breakfast bars are great.

Well Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, the owners of Cliff Bar & Co. decided that their passion for "food, family, and adventure" also included wine! Currently they have five different wines:

-The Climber White Wine Blend
-The Climber North Coast Red Wine
-Kit's Killer Cab - Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
-Gary's Improv - Napa Valley Meritage
-Napa Valley Syrah

Clif Family Winery's winemaker is Sarah Gott, who joined the team in early 2007. She has a fantastic resume, graduating from UC Davis with a degree in Viticulture and Enology, and interning at Joseph Phelps Vineyards where she eventually moved up the ranks to winemaker. She spends her time consulting for various wineries in the Napa Valley, as well as building Joel Gott Wines with her husband.

The fruit for the wines is currently sourced from some of the best vineyards in the Napa Valley and North Coast appellations, and they actively seek out growers that have a commitment to sustainable farming and caring for the environment.

Take a look at their store here. They also have olive oil that looks pretty great too.
You can also find their wines at some Whole Foods Markets around the country.

According to a recent study, the more you earn the more you drink. Higher income groups consume 30% more alcohol than the working class. And middle-class women are drinking more than the realize because of the trend towards larger wine glasses.



How do you rate?

You can read more at the Daily Mail.

The Sundance Film Festival began today in Park City, Utah. And tomorrow, "Bottle Shock", the film based on the 1976 Judgement of Paris in which California wines were rated above French wines and caused a huge upset in the wine world. "Bottle Shock" is a term which means a short-term loss of flavor and aroma that wines suffer after being bottled.

The film stars Bill Pullman, Chris Pine, and Alan Rickman, and is shot entirely in California wine country. The film chronicles Chateau Montelena's part in the Judgement that put Napa Valley on the map.

Check out the article from the Salt Lake Tribune here.

Beringer's head winemaker, Ed Sbragia, is handing over the reigns to his second-in-command, and very worthy successor, Laurie Hook. Sbragia has been with Beringer for 32 years, and will continue on as Winemaker Emeritus, but will be spending the majority of his time working with his family's vineyard in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley. Sbragia Family Vineyards was started in 2004 and while entirely family owned, is marketed through Beringer. With his son Adam, also an experienced winemaker, the family winery produces about 6,000 cases a year.

Sbragia trained under Beringer's legendary winemaker Myron Nightingale. Laurie Hook has been with Beringer for 22 years and says that, "Ed has set it up so that I can continue to make the great wines that we're known for, and luckily he's still around. It's a great spot to be in."

You can read Decanter.com's article here.

Today Reuters featured an interview with Margrit Mondavi, wife of winemaker Robert Mondavi.

Margrit is the Vice President of Cultural Affairs at the Robert Mondavi Winery and a trendsetter in the wine world. She introduced the Great Chefs Program, the Summer Music Festival, the Winter Classical Concert at the winery as well as writing an award winning cookbook and working as an artist.

Now that her 94-year old husband is confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak Margarit, 81, has become the voice of the winery.

Here's what she had to say to Reuters' Jim Christie:

Q: How important for the development of Mondavi wines was the work on appreciation for cuisine?
A: "Bob always said, 'We've got it all (in California), the ocean for fish and seafood, the grains, the meat, so let's put it together ... The table was always so important to Bob."

Q: Would Mondavi wines have gone as far without an association to fine food and more broadly the "good life?"
A: "For the first 27 years we never did advertising so of course anything that we did that brought that feeling of wine, food and the arts together was very important ... It was our way to show the wines to the world."

Q: What was the Napa Valley like before Mondavi's emphasis on producing quality wines?
A: "The valley still suffered from the aftermath of Prohibition ... We had 21 wineries in 1966 when Bob opened (the Robert Mondavi Winery). Now we have over 400. We have proven we can make wines that Bob said could equal any of the great wines of the world. He never said better. He said equal."

Q: Do you think the growth of Mondavi into a publicly traded company put profits ahead of making fine wine? (Constellation Brands Inc acquired Robert Mondavi Corp in 2004)
A: "It never distracted us. We kept making better wines. That was our goal ... Bob always said if you're on a quest for excellence don't worry about anything else."

Q: What is your favorite Mondavi wine?
A: "If I had to go to a desert island with a book and one bottle of wine it would be a cabernet sauvignon."

Q: How will Robert Mondavi be remembered within Napa Valley?
A: "He had time for everybody ... If they needed a truck, to crush grapes, three cases of glasses, Bob was always there."

I came across this gadget tonight, and thought it was really interesting. The Clef-du-Vin is a device used to simulate aging in wine. For every one second you hold it in a glass, it "ages" the wine a year. Seems like an odd device right? But it can be helpful in determining what wines will age well, and even allowing you to drink wines that may otherwise be too young to drink.

The process has something to do with the type of alloy the Clef-du-Vin is made out of, and how it influences oxidation in the wine. I'll be honest, I read the press materials on their website, and I don't fully understand how it works. I think it'd be a lot of fun to try out at a wine tasting though, and potentially very useful.

They run a little on the expensive side. At www.wineenthusiast.com they run from $89.95 to $199.95.

Has anyone used a Clef-du-Vin? I'd love to know what you think of it.

This coming spring Napa will welcome a new public market created by Steve Carlin, the driving force behind Oakville Grocery and San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace. The idea behind the Oxbow Public Market is to bring back the marketplace feeling that was once common in a shopping experience, and allow shoppers to see where their food comes from and how it is prepared.

The $11-million structure on the banks of Napa River, with 18 stalls for constantly changing vendors will operate seven days a week. And not only is the market going to change the way we shop, but also feature some high-end and extraordinary products. Eventually the market will feature only wines made at the market, and will offer six locally produced olive oils from the Olive Press of Sonoma, that can be tapped from giant metal cans. A rotisserie cooker, Venezuelan arepa stand, and even an oyster bar are among the ideas Carlin has for the market.

Personally, I would love to have something like that near me. I've always adored the markets I've been to in Europe and Central America, and of course farmer's markets over the summer. If something like this was available to shop at instead of a supermarket, I know I'd be there for everything possible!

Check out the LA TImes article here.

You don't see many wineries advertising, and certainly not focusing on a younger generation in the way that Beringer's newest ad campaign is. Beringer announced today that they are launching a multi-million dollar television campaign to introduce one of California's oldest wineries to a new generation of wine drinkers.

The first commercial is available to view here.

The Culinary Institute of America, otherwise known as the CIA, is offering a free online class called A Taste of Wine Online. The class is designed to give students a "taste" of what CIA's professional on-site wine courses are like.




Hey, who can resist a free wine course?! This would be a great resource for beginners, and probably a fun refresher for the more experienced wine lover.

Check it out at CIA's website.

Evidently this is somewhat old news, according to Jeff at Good Grape, but it's news to me.

Robert Parker and Kevin Zraly, are apparently starting their own wine certification program. The details are at Parker's Website. What the site says is that there will be three levels of certification:

• Level 1 - Aficionado of Wine
• Level 2 - Connoisseur of Wine
• Level 3 - Expert of Wine

Level 1 and 2 consist entirely of online examinations, and Level 3 includes a written exam and a face-to-face meeting with Parker and Zraly for a blind wine tasting and oral examination. Currently only Level 1 is available, and only to eRobertParker.com subscribers. Good Grape says that it is made up of 8 examinations at $30 each. And students have 60 minutes to answer 50 questions. A passing score is 80/100.

I don't know about the rest of the wine world, but I'm really intrigued by this new certification. Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World has kind of been a "bible" for me personally, so his stamp of approval means a fair amount to me. As those of you who have been reading for a while know, I took the first level of certification from the International Wine Guild and I've been hoping to take the next level sometime in 2008. Honestly a hands-on class will always be better than an online class when it comes to wine, but I may have to take a break and try Parker's certification before continuing on. It's certainly a bit more affordable, but requires a lot more study on your own.

Let me know if any of you are taking the Parker tests. I'd love to know what you think of them.

I recently had the chance to read The Good Life: A Chris Garrett Novel by David G. White. A murder mystery based in the Napa Valley, The Good Life focuses on Chris Garrett an assistant winemaker at Maverick Cellars. When Chris' mentor Vic dies mysteriously, everyone assumes that it was an accident. Everyone except Chris that is.

This was a really enjoyable read. It was detailed and funny, and honestly kept me guessing right up until the last minute. It's an easy read that would be great for a plane trip or a long wait. Personally I read it while I worked out at the gym. A book can be a great way to distract yourself from the miles on the stationary bike!

Click on the image above to buy it.

A new program at the Yakima Valley Community College in south-central Washington is offering several new wine related degree programs. Winery Technology and Vineyard Technology are two associate's degrees being offered this fall for the first time. The idea is to cultivate local employees to work in the local wine industry.

Randy Tucker, owner and winemaker at Tucker Cellars in Sunnyside, helped to develop a curriculum for the programs. "THhe industry is growing so fast, we need more people," Tucker says, "and they need to be educated people."

Walla Walla and South Seattle community college also offer wine degrees. Washington State University also offers a four-year degree program.

To celebrate the new programs, a Great Grape Stomp Festival will be held on September 15th. Teams of three will compete there to see who can stomp the most juice out of a barrel of wine grapes.

Check out the Yakima Herald article for more information.

Late last month Copia, The American Center for Food, Wine, and the Arts, unveiled it's newest "toy". The WineStation is a device from Napa Technology that not only automates portion control, but also preserves wine for up to 60 days and tracks customer preferences. Check out this link for a video of the WineStation.



At Copia, each pour is given a price and guests then purchases "tastes" with a pre-loaded card that is inserted into the machine. With 10 machines in all, Copia is offering 40 wine selections through WineStations. Six machines are dedicated to customer education, with each one offering a different focus. Such as malolactic and non-malolactic fermentations, vineyard techniques, and even wine faults. There is even one machines that asks guests to try and identify the grape variety used.

I've got to say that I think this is an absolutely fantastic idea. What they've essentially done is created an interactive visitor's center for wine. It's great to see technology being used to advance the wine industry. If you're in the area, please let me know what you think of this new setup. I can't wait to take a look the next time I'm in Napa.

Now this is really a great website. Wineanswers.com is a site that has just been launched by the wWine Market Council as a 24-hour-a-day resource for all types of wine information. From a database of wine and food pairings to articles by some of the nation's leading sommeliers and wine experts, this is truly a wonderful resource for any wine lover.

Check it out! And feel free to post a comment to let others know what you think.

I was just reading the newest issue of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel (one of my favorite magazines) and saw a great little article on a wine from Argentina called Iron Wine. Iron Wine sells malbec-cabernet and chenin blanc in 12 ounce aluminum cans. Each can has a special lining that keeps the product isolated in an inert environment.

Unfortunately the wine isn't available in the U.S. But it is available in upscale shops and bars in Argentina for $2 to $6.

With all the recent new about the Mondavi family, here's an interview with the other side of the family and a focus on the "other" Mondavi winery, Charles Krug.

AG: How do you, as a pioneering winery, an older winery keep up with the changes and fickleness of the wine press and the consumer?

PM: We’ve been plagued by that. What we’ve done – and it’s a long process – we started 20 years ago to focus our portfolio and eliminate Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Gamay Beaujolais, and Muscat Canelli and focus predominantly on Bordeaux reds. Now we’ve gone from one-third Bordeaux reds to two-thirds. We’ve revamped the winemaking from top to bottom, revamped the barrel program to French. We’re replanting our vineyards because they were planted in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And we’ve kept our nose to the grindstone and out of the press until recent years until the wines being produced today are exceptional. We’re reinventing ourselves. That’s how we’ve combated it.

AG: Why did you keep a low profile all this time?

PM: We were busy bringing our wines to the next level.

AG: Did the situation with your uncle’s (Robert) family have an effect?

PM: Not really. They are so far removed from us. There are very few parallels left: the size and the scope, and the financing. There’s very little to compare about these two wineries. (But) their whole direction had a personal impact on us. We were sad to see the family get out into the public.

You can read the rest of the article and interview by Alan Goldfarb at AppellationAmerica.com.

Well I picked up The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty yesterday and started reading it. So far it's very interesting. I plan on posting a full review once I finish the book. For now take a look at this question and answer session with author Julia Flynn Siler.

Originally posted on WineAbout, Virginie Boone's blog. The interview took place on Thursday, June 7th in Yountville, CA.

How did you initially get interested in the Mondavis?
It started in January of 2004. There was a story buried in the San Francisco Chronicle saying Michael Mondavi was taking a leave of absence and the deputy bureau chief of the Chronicle and I went to lunch and we were talking and he said it was odd that [Michael] would do that. So I started thinking about it and called over to the company and really hit a brick wall. It was so odd that at a company that had been so open for years and years, no one would talk to me. Mondavi was famous for having many, many friends amongst reporters, he was very open. That was the charm and integral part of the culture. The response I got raised a red flag and made me think, what's happened?

How did you start getting information if they wouldn't talk to you?
It was a publicly traded company so there were a lot of SEC filings and documents. Mondavi has the nickname Mondavi University because so many talented people came through there and therefore there were former employees and they were pretty easy to talk to. The wine industry is gracious and open and it wasn't hard to track down a whole bunch of people.

Had you met members of the family up to that point; you knew about the famous rift between Robert and Peter, right?
No. I really came to it cold and I think in some ways it was a good thing because I had never been on the receiving end of all that hospitality over the years, I wasn't a wine writer. I had never met a single member of the family before.

In that original WSJ story, you quoted psychiatrists that had worked with the family. What led you to that?
One of the key sources I ran across was Peter Ventura who had been the CEO of Opus One and is Robert Mondavi's nephew and cousin to Michael and Timothy. Peter at that point was no longer CEO of Opus One, he had just left I think. He was really the first member of the family to open up to me and that led to a family counselor and long-time lawyer for the family named Cliff Adams, Robert's self-described consigliore. He had been with Robert from the 1960s through the 90s, had taken them through the IPO.
Both of those men had a pretty good sense of the family dynamic - one was a family member; one had worked with the dynamics of the family for decades.

What was happening?
What was happening in the spring of 2004 was Ted Hall had come in as the outside chairman, Michael had been ousted, which was humiliating for him, Tim had been sidelined as vice chairman and it looked as though the board was going to strip the Mondavis of their control of the company, so it was a terribly, terribly stressful time for them and for the company as a whole. A lot of people were being laid off.
What also had changed is when Ted Hall became the outside chairman he had retained a very well known financial PR company based in new York and I think that company probably said don't talk to anybody, especially don't talk to Julie. But the fact that they had been so open for so many years made my job easier.

The WSJ story runs, then what happened?
The key thing was the story foreshadowed the fact the company might be sold or broken up. It's a publicly traded company; the stock is going to react to that. It came out two, three days before the Napa Valley Auction, so clearly that added to the pressure the family and the company was already feeling. But that's my job, I'm a financial reporter. I was at that auction and it was for me awkward. My intention certainly was not to hurt anybody but just very clearly lay out what was going on inside the company.

Did you formally meet the Mondavis there?
I went up to Mr. Mondavi and introduced myself and shook his hand and told him I had a lot of respect for him. I think I introduced myself to Margrit, I introduced myself to Tim. Michael was not there as I recall. For me it was a bit like being an anthropologist, this world of the Napa Valley Wine Auction is foreign and exotic to most people. It's beyond their dreams that level of money being devoted to fermented grape juice, so it was fascinating. I know I was an outsider, I know I was perceived as being perhaps someone with a critical eye looking at this, which isn't the norm in the wine industry.

In meeting them in person was anything surprising?
Mr. Mondavi at that point was slowing down and it wasn't clear how aware he was of what was happening so I was surprised by that because as a reporter from the outside there was no indication whatsoever that there was any kind of mental confusion. I knew he had a hearing problem. Margrit was absolutely gracious and it was clear to me at that auction that she was highly regarded and beloved in the community and rightly so, she's a very beautiful, gracious lady and has been extraordinarily generous.
[Tim] seemed very protective of his dad. Knowing what I know now I realize it was an extraordinarily difficult few months for them. I believe there had been a key board meeting either just before the auction or just about to happen in New York which was the key step in their losing control of their company. I can only imagine what they must have been feeling. I don't know what they were feeling and I don't pretend to know unless they told me. The prologue of my book is that auction, that day. Robert rode a golf cart into the auction because he was having trouble walking and then Tim helped him up to the podium.

At what point did you decide to turn their saga into a book?
I received an email from the publisher at Penguin right after the WSJ story ran saying would you consider a book and so I went to the auction knowing that this could be the first chapter of this book and also knowing that something was happening - there was a lot of board room maneuvering going on right then - so I was there as a reporter.

So the book starts from that point on?
No, the book really starts in 1906 when Cesare [Mondavi] comes from Italy and it spans almost 100 years. The first scene takes place at that 2004 auction because that was one of the most difficult moments for the Robert Mondavi family and took place at an auction they helped found, a symbol of their generosity and their giving to the community for so many years, yet at that moment they were on the verge of losing control of their company - I shouldn't say their company because it was a publicly traded company, a company they founded.

How did you do a lot of the historic research, did the family help?
The wine industry is blessed because there is first of all a really wonderful oral history program at the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library, there were oral histories of Robert, of Peter, oral histories of a number of winemakers they worked with over the years, Grgich, Winiarski, some of the vintners and winemakers who were even of an earlier generation are in those oral histories. That was a great place to start.
Luckily the St. Helena Wine Library had a lot of stuff. So there was a lot of interesting material out there already. My job as an author is so much easier than somebody who would have tried to do this project 10 or 20 years ago. For example the Ellis Island Foundation, I could get the actual passenger records from the steamer that Cesare Mondavi took over from Italy to the U.S. and you can see his name, it's really remarkable.
And there were family members who shared a lot of photographs which I'm very grateful for. By the end of this project we talked to more than 250 people all over the world. I went to Italy, I went to Sassoferroto [where Cesare was born]. I spoke to the Frescobaldi family and the Antinori family, interviewed the Baroness Rothschild here and I traveled to Fairport, New York where Richard and Robert Sands [of Constellation] run their wine empire, went into the war room which is the place where they strategized the takeover of Mondavi.

Was there a consensus of the people you spoke to on Mondavi's lasting legacy in the wine world? Is his place in history secure?
His legacy as a tireless pitchman for the Napa Valley, California and the American wine industry is secure, I think it makes no difference that Constellation bought the company he founded. I don't think my book will in any way hurt that legacy I think it will deepen people's understanding of what it took to do what he did, which took a pretty focused, driven personality.

What are some of your favorite anecdotes?
Warren Winiarski was really, really helpful, I went back to him on several occasions, Warren having sort of a professorial view and a very deep knowledge of literature he was helpful in thinking about the battle from literature that might apply. It did resemble King Lear and Warren helped me think it through. As I drove between San Francisco and Napa I listened to a recording of King Lear two or three times to think about it.
Of course King Lear was about an aging king who's dividing his kingdom and his succession issue and his inheritance issues and there are a lot of ways in which what happened to Robert Mondavi can be likened to what happened to King Lear even down to King Lear at the end is mad, Robert Mondavi never went mad but he did suffer from severe mental confusion at times toward the end of my book, which ends in 2005.
One of my absolute favorite stories, and the woman who told me the story has since passed away; she was a French designer and party planner and worked for the Robert Mondavi Winery for a long, long time, worked closely with Margrit. In its heyday the winery used to throw these hard to believe parties, one of my favorite stories from [her] was an Out of Africa party shortly after that movie came out. They shipped in animals, an elephant, cheetah, maybe a lion and even chimpanzees to this big party they were throwing for distributors.
The chimps were pooping and they were worried the chimps were going to poop on the guests so they ended up having to put diapers on the chimpanzees. I have this wonderful picture someone else shared with me of Robert and Margrit and they were feeding champagne to the elephant. They had a lot of fun. People really loved working there.
I think Michael told me a hysterical story about Robert, who was a notoriously speedy driver and well known to the CHP for driving so fast and the story I heard was that Michael got pulled over and the cop said look I'm going to let you off with a warning but make me one promise, promise me that your dad doesn't drive anymore, get him a driver. Speaks to the pace at which he lived his life, which is pretty fast.

So you spoke with Michael?
I spoke with Michael extensively, I spoke with Tim on a number of occasions, it was particularly hard on Tim I think. I spoke with Margrit at least a half a dozen times and I fact checked with all of them. I spoke with [Robert's daughter] Marcy maybe three times in total on the telephone very briefly. I'm not sure I would call those interviews. According to Harvey Posert, I got the last interview with Robert that he gave to anybody and that was in March of 2005. But at that point Robert was not tracking, I didn't use anything from that interview, it didn't seem like the right thing to do.

Do you see a universal appeal for this book because of the family drama or do you think enough people know Mondavi as a wine name that that will draw them in?
I think anybody who's interested in a family saga will be interested in this book. And it's remarkable and it's inspiring too how they created an enterprise that was valued at more than $1 billion over the course of 40 years. There's an enormous number of family businesses in this country and they're very productive but they also carry with them special challenges.
Typically people don't write about family businesses very much because they're so hard to penetrate, to get inside and particularly if you talk about the emotions which I find underlay so many of the dynamics. When you mix work and family into this, it's a lot more challenging. Harvard Business School has written something like five or six case studies on the Mondavi family. I particularly am fascinated with real stories of families and how they work.

Seems that right now there are so many families in Napa and Sonoma grappling with family succession issues because where we are in the history of the wine industry. Do you think there is something specific for them to learn from the Mondavi story?
One clear lesson is that between 1993 when the Mondavis took their company public and 2004, 11 years later, the world had really dramatically changed - with Sarbanes Oxley and with much heavier reporting requirements that that brought about, no one could have anticipated that but looking back on it - but particularly in the wine industry which is so subject to the vagaries of agriculture I think wine companies considering going public should think long and hard about it. It's tough, tough business. That's a lesson that the vast majority of family wineries are not even going to contemplate going public but there is consolidation going on.
A larger issue and a more universal one that might speak not only to wine families but anybody in family business is this notion of a shared dream. Robert had a very clear vision of where he wanted the company to go and how to get there and I think he hoped that somehow his sons would be able to carry that on.
It's pretty clear just from my own perspective that it may have been that wasn't the wisest course and it may have been a better idea to follow the pattern of some of the European wine families at some stage say okay let's step back, we are owners but we're going to let other people manage the business. And as owners we are going to come up with instruction and vote as a bloc and exercise our control as a bloc and the Mondavis never had that kind of agreement amongst themselves to vote as a bloc, which is very unusual and only explained through understanding a very long history that involves a lot of disagreements and a lot of hurt.
This is a story in a sense of a legacy of divorce, too. [Robert's] divorce [from first wife Margie] was very, very painful for Robert's adult children and to this day Michael makes no secret of the fact that he's not exactly Margrit's biggest fan.

Did you get to taste a lot of Mondavi wines throughout your research?
I tasted some, I like Mondavi wines I think they're delicious. One of the things that I was able to do before I wrote the WSJ story was take a tour of Mondavi winery and taste a lot of wines and also over the last couple of years every chance I could get so I could better understand what I was writing about. Particularly right now [Mondavi ] Genevieve [Janssens]'s wines are underrated. They're very good.

Is there anybody like them anymore in terms of the Mondavi University aspect of constant research and innovation?
I know Jess Jackson's hired a lot of very talented former Mondavi people. He seems to have a great eye for talent but it's not clear to me he wants to step into the role that Robert had and not clear there's anyone in the Gallo family yet ready to do that. I don't know. The world is such a different place too. How many wineries are there now in Napa, 300 or 400? It's hard(er) to break out.

Were there things that you kept out of the book because they were too personal?
I was a stranger coming into Napa Valley, I'd written a fairly tough story about a beloved icon that people were upset about yet so many people talked to me and they talked to me because they trusted I would do the right thing. Almost everybody I talked to was on the record but there was an instance of a woman, a former employee of the winery who spoke only on background.
She helped me understand some of the things I'd heard from women in the valley. Robert was a person who loved women and that was a very delicate thing to deal with and I ended up having to talk to Margrit about how she coped with being married to a man who so clearly loved women, loved to be touched by women. Some of what Robert Mondavi might have considered good fun could probably be considered inappropriate and certainly some women I talked to felt that way. I did not focus on that in the book. Margrit felt that she handled it very graciously.

What was [early Mondavi winemaker] Zelma Long's take, she was there so early, a woman winemaker given that position, she must have been one of the first.
She was given a fantastic opportunity. The other side of Robert loving women, he was also one of the first to give women opportunities like Zelma Long and a succession of very talented women after that. She told me wonderful stories of going to Europe with Robert and Margrit to understand how European winemakers were doing it and the sheer energy and exuberance, the funny things that happened, a bus got lost and Margrit was able to translate and ask directions in three or four different languages.
Margrit was a wonderful asset to Robert in so many ways and Zelma also had deep insight into the dynamics of Robert and his sons because Zelma was there when Tim was just about to become winemaker and Robert was tough on his sons, extremely tough on them and he would make Tim in particular cry. That's a terrible position to be in as the boss's son. Zelma remembers stories like that.

Is Mondavi the most famous wine name in America? What about outside of America?
Gallo is a pretty famous name. But Mondavi was a pioneer in having partnerships with the Rothschilds, Frescobaldis, with wineries in Australia. Credit is due to Robert for that. He is remarkable, I wish I had known him, met him in the 1990s when he was still at his peak.

How much did the James Conaway book [The Far Side of Eden: New Money, Old Land, and the Battle for Napa Valley, published in 2002] hurt you?
Oh it hurt a lot because there were a lot of people who were very wary of talking to a reporter after Jim's book. In this case every single principal I went back to and fact checked, I don't think they are going to be surprised by anything although particularly in a situation like this in 2004 and 2005 things were so emotionally charged that looking back on it now as they begin to reinvent themselves, they probably wish they had let a lot of that go.

Is there a movie in this?
I don't know. I know that one of the investment bankers for Constellation joked that this is a real life Falcon Crest and there are elements of a soap opera or family epic, the Thornbirds, but they're real people and whose story is it? I tried to be a very straight, WSJ-style writer in approaching this. If they didn't say it I didn't make it up. If I couldn't find out what they said I didn't' put it in the book. The people who started this industry are strong people, they're remarkable and if you look closely at people who are pioneers or very driven entrepreneurs there's some pain behind that drive and certainly that was the case with Robert Mondavi.

Do you think you would have gotten that call if this was about textiles or semiconductors?
No, wine is so glamorous, the glamour, the romance of wine, the Napa Valley. It's aspiration, people want to imagine. Robert Mondavi of course had been on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, he and Margrit had built their house on Wappo Hill and Robin Leach had a helicopter circling above his estate. There was a lot of glamour associated with his lifestyle and the wine. He was so handsome.

Five years ago, vinter Fred Franzia (nephew of wine legend Ernest Gallo) began producing Two Buck Chuck under the label of Charles Shaw Wines. Available only in Trader Joe's grocery stores for the bargain price of $1.99 (hence the name), Charles Shaw wines accounted for at least 8% of California wine sold in-state.

Michael Mondavi, son of wine pioneer Robert Mondavi says, "I think Two Buck Chuck has helped to make people aware that wine is not just for special occasions." Mondavi believes that those who begin by buying the wine will eventually trade up to higher quality wines within a year or two.

Franzia's wine history goes back to his grandfather, Giuseppe Franzia, who immigrated from Italy to America and opened the Franzia Brothers Winery in 1933. That winery was sold in 1973 and Fred, his brother Joseph and cousin John, started Bronco Wine Company. The bag-in-box wine sold under the Franzia name, actually bears no connection to the Franzia family.

While predominantly located in California, Trader Joe's has locations across the country. If you happen to have one close to you, stop in and try a bottle of the Two Buck Chuck. While it may not be the best wine you've ever tasted, I know quite a few people who swear by it as a daily table wine.

The very first spa in the world to be developed fully underground, opened today in Napa Valley. Spa Terra at The Meritage Resort at Napa is a 9,000 square foot underground spa featuring stream grottos, soaking pools, water walls, and private treatment rooms.

The Spa's signature experience, Solo Vino, is an "exfoliating grape seed scrub, an invigorating jet shower rinse, hydrating body wrap with a wine cave mud mask and Terra massage; and includes a wine and cheese selection to round out the two-hour treatment." Check out the entire spa menu at www.spaterra.com.

I've always wanted to go to the Meritage Resort, but now I definitely think I'll have to save up and take a trip.

It's taken a lot of work and some ingenuity, but winemaker João Santos has developed the Dão Sul vineyard into one of the most successful tropical vineyards ever. And all in only four years time.

"For years we have drawn two bands around the globe, roughly between latitudes 30 and 50, to denote those parts of it deemed suitable for viticulture," Jancis Robinson, a British wine expert says. "But all this is changing fast." Brazil is not a typical climate for growing grapes, it's land is flat and arid. While this makes for a perfect condition for growing coconuts, it can necessitate things like irrigation piping. Something Dão Sul vineyards has laid hundreds of miles of to reach a nearby river.

There are also benefits to vineyards in Brazil though. With 300 days of sunshine, winemakers can harvest grapes year-round. The land in Brazil is also significantly cheaper than in places like France or Napa Valley.


On the other side of the world, Siam Winery in Thailand has floating vineyards on the Chao Phraya Delta. These technique has been used for many years by farmers in the area, and prevents any need for irrigation. The Winery was founded in 1982 by Chalerm Yoodvidhya for the purpose of creating a world class wine that would complement and Thai cuisine.


Sula Vineyards is located 180 km northeast of Mumbai in the Nashik region. The climate in Nashik is surprisingly similar to the wine growing regions of Northern California, Spain, and Australia and provides a perfect climate for growing grapes. Founded in 1993, Sula quickly established itself as India's leading premium wine blend.

As an avid traveler, I find this unique vineyards to be extremely interesting, and I wanted to share with you all how winemakers around the world have discovered ways to grow grapes where they would normally never grow. It just goes to show the ingenuity of the human spirit, or at least a strong desire to have wine available!

The Napa Valley Register had an article this week highlighting several new "wine" books. Here they are:

Educating Peter: How I Taught a Famous Movie Critic the Difference Between Cabernet and Merlot, or, How Anybody Can Become an (Almost) Instant Wine Expert"
In this new book Lettie Teague, the executive wine editor for Food & Wine, chronicles the lessons she gave to her close friend Peter Travers. The Register says, "it's a book that abandons the 'idiot-oriented' style for a witty narrative that follows Travers as he learns the essential facts of wine."

The Good Life, A Chris Garrett Novel
In winemaker David G. White's first book, he tells the story of a murder mystery set in Napa Valley. The book is about a winemaker "whose winemaking skills are put to the ultimate test - solving a murder."

Last night President Bush hosted Queen Elizabeth at the White House. Here's the menu they served:

Spring Pea Soup with Fernleaf Lavender
Chive Pizzelle with American Caviar

Dover Sole Almondine
Roasted Artichokes, Pequillo Peppers and Olives

Saddle of Springs Lamb
Chantrelle Sauce
Fricassee of Baby Vegetables

Arugula, Savannah Mustard and Mint Romaine
Champagne Dressing and Trio of Farmhouse Cheeses

The menu was served with these wines:
• Newton Chardonnay "Unfiltered" 2004
• Peter Michael "Les Pavots" 2003
• Schramsberg Brut Rosé 2004

Now you know what royalty drinks.

Karen MacNeil, author of The Wine Bible, was honored by the Wine Appreciation Guild with their 2007 Wine Literary Award. Previous recipients include Robert M. Parker, Jr., Dan Berger, and Kevin Zraly. The award is given to authors who have made a substantial contribution to the literature of wine in the English language.

On April 30th, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a petition naming September 2007 as California Wine Month. The governor praised California's wine community for strengthening the state's economy and highlighting the ideal climate, beautiful scenery, geographic diversity and unparalleled expertise of its grape growers and the state's wine industry.

The Wine Institute is partnering with wineries, grower associations, retailers and restaurants to provide a calendar of wine events in September. Check out www.californiawineevents.com for listings of events throught the year.

Take a look at two new wine documentaries out there.

The first, Crush, is available online at Don Sebastiani & Sons, and is here below. This is an excellent short film that gives viewers a look at what a harvest is like. As a kid that was fascinated by those videos of how crayons and balloons are made, I really enjoyed watching this film. It gives you just a bit more a look into how wine gets to you.

All of Don Sebastiani & Sons films can be viewed on iTunes here.

The second film is not yet available to view online, but I'm hoping to be able to get a DVD copy so that I can let you all know what it's like. Harvest Young is a film about the wine industry's failure to market anything to those of the "millenial" generation (which I am a part of). For more information about the film you can check out the film's myspace site here or go to www.harvestyoung.com for more information.

A recent study by Vinexpo was conducted that surveyed 100 occasional wine drinkers aged 20-25 (20 each in London, Paris, Brussels, New York and Tokyo). In focus groups, the study participants were found to all be interested in wine, but deterred by it's complexity and stuffy image. Another survey by decanter.com concluded that 18-25 year olds were interested in wine and eager to learn more. 



That is honestly, one of the main reasons I started this site. As a younger wine enthusiast myself, I can at times find it very difficult to be taken seriously by those in the wine field. I would love to hear what the rest of you think. Have you had trouble because of your age when it comes to wine?

The San Jose Mercury News featured an article yesterday about the website crushpadwine.com. Crushpad is a unique business venture that allows anyone to be a virtual winemaker. 



Crushpad walks virtual winemakers through a six step process. The customer starts by designing the wine, anywhere from a basic description to a detailed specification, and then a plan is set up for what wines and methods will produce that design. Throughout the growing process the customer can monitor the their grapes' progress online, and a vineyard tour to visit their vines can even be scheduled. Once the grapes are ready they are taken to Crushpad to be processed, and then aged in barrels. The final step is to design your wine's packaging (including everything from the label to the cork). 



At the end of the process, the customer receives about 25 cases of wine from their barrel, and Crushpad takes care of all the legalities so there's no need to worry about taxes or paperwork. They even offer a service for those that are interested in selling their wines commercially. 



While the service is certainly not cheap (prices range between $4500 to $10,000 a barrel), it is definitely one of a kind. Who wouldn't want to try their hand at producing their own wine if given the chance? I would absolutely love to myself, just a hint to anyone looking to buy me a present....wink, wink. 



So if you have the inclination, take a look at their site www.crushpadwine.com.

The Portland Business Journal conducted a survey last week of their readers to see how they felt about wines with and without corks.



The Journal asked "Is a cork an essential part of the fine wine experience?" Here are the results:



• 50% responded with "Who cares how the bottle's closed as long as the wine is good."
• 26% said "Without a cork it's just not the same."
• 12% said "I've got better things to worry about."
• 10% said "Screw caps are okay for cheap stuff, but I want a cork with the good stuff."



Interesting results. Personally, I think the cork ads to the experience. And I love to collect the corks from wines I've tried. What do you think?

California Cooler, the originator of the wine cooler in the 1980's, is now offering a new product that claims to be the only brand to use real wine to make their coolers.

CEO Jason Kane explains "Most companies switched to malt during the '90s because of taxation and state-to-state shipping restrictions. The new California Cooler will be the only nationally available brand to use real wine and juice as well as infused natural fruit flavors."

The new flavors will include Coastal Citrus, Pomegranate Berry, Cranberry Grapefruit, and White Peach. The coolers should be rolling out by May 2007, and retail for around $7.99.

A dairy in Boonville, New York, Mercer's Ice Cream, has created ice cream in three different wine favors: Ala Port Wine, Peachy White Zinfandel, and Red Raspberry Chardonnay. The dairy came up with the idea several years ago when Mercer's was exhibiting at the Pride of New York product fairs alongside area wineries.


But be prepared to show your ID for this concoction. The ice cream has an alcohol content of 5%, and can't be served to minors.

The San Francisco Gate featured on article today highlighting the newfound popularity of the Spanish wine Albarino. Grown predominantly in the Rias Baixas region of spain, the article states that the grapes

"make neat, distinctive wines that smell and taste like a remix of other, more popular grapes. It has some of the citrussy, grassy flavors of Sauvignon Blanc, flashes of richer peach and pineapple flavors of Viognier, and the delicate, minerally character of Riesling. In Portugal, Albarino makes Vinho Verde, a refreshing, low-alcohol, sometimes fizzy wine. The Spanish versions tend to be riper, richer and more complex, but still tart and refreshing."

Albarino accounts for 94% of the grapes planted in the Rias Baixas region, and because rain is common in the area, vines are usually grown up tall vertical posts to trellises that suspend the grapes over the wet ground. This positioning also allows drying breezes to flow through the vineyards after rain. Some small vineyards will even plant another crop underneath the canopy of vines.

Personally, I had never heard of this wine before reading the San Francisco Gate Article. But I feel the need to try it after reading the description.

Read the whole article here.

Julia Flyn Siler, a regular contributer to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, will release a book on June 21st that chronicles the rise and fall of one of the greatest families in the wine industry. The House of Mondavi spans four generations and five continents from 1906 to 2005. Flynn Siler has been working on the book for three years, and has conducted over 525 hours of interviews with more than 250 people. The Mondavi family themselves agreed to be interviewed in order to make sure that their perspective was included.

The book will most likely be very controversial, and no advance or review copies were made available because of that fact. It should, however, prove to be a very interesting and informative read.

The Wine Makers is a new reality show that will air on PBS. It's supposed to be in the style of Bravo's Top Chef or NBC's The Apprentice. Twelve contestants, chosen from a pool of over 600 mean and women, are plunged into the wine making experience. And one will be chosen to create and launch their own wine label. The show began shooting in October of 2006, and is set to begin airing on PBS in fall of 2007. 

Now I know that there are many people out there that simply despise reality television, but unfortunately I have to admit that I am a true reality tv addict. There are very few reality shows that I don't have set to record on my Tivo. I think this show sounds absolutely fantastic, and I can't wait for it to start airing. I'll let you all know exact dates once I find them out.

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Uncorked: Wine Made Simple is a 6-part miniseries hosted by Ted Allen that is set to air in April of 2007. Each episode will introduce viewers to winemakers, wine terminology, and a host of wine basics including how to read a wine label and how to pair wine and food. The show is supposed to appeal to both novices and pros, through it's use of entertainment and interviews to teach. 

I love Ted Allen's on-screen presence and he has a vast knowledge of wine and food (watch his appearances on Top Chef). I think this should be quite an interesting show. Once again, I'll post the exact airtimes once I find them out.