Wine's Royalty
Posted by by Bill Belkin, wine and spirits category manager
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Royalty comes in many shapes and sizes. Hollywood has Brad and Angelina. The "royals" throughout Europe are led by Wils and Kate. And certainly Mick and Keith need no introduction in the world of rock 'n roll. In the wine world the name MONDAVI still resonates, even after the passing of the patriarch, Robert over three years ago. His scion's are very much active in the business and are making some of the best wines in the world...that don't say MONDAVI on them anywhere, as unfortunately that name belongs to someone else. It was my pleasure to host young Dante Mondavi at our beautiful Golden Valley shop.
Dante is the progeny of Tim Mondavi, the eldest son of the late Robert. Tim's resume of winemaking needs little in the way of introduction having steered the high scoring ships at Opus One and certainly the Reserve and To-Ka-Lon programs for his former family business. These days Dante, his big sister Charissa and Tim are ensconced high up on Pritchard Hill overlooking the entire southern half of the valley and rolling out the 4th high scoring vintage of their wonderful wine called CONTINUUM. Each of the vintages 2005-2008 has scored in the mid to high 90's and there is no end in sight. They are striving to make a 100% estate fruit bottling and although a lot of folks would love to have the To-Ka-Lon fruit they currently use, they feel the estate will be growing better more structured grapes that will make this bottling a true contemporary Cali classic. Minnesota's Robert Mondavi is up there smiling somewhere. The wine retails for $140 per bottle and if you ask yourself, which you should - "...is it worth it...?" This man's simple answer is YES!!!