Winegrowing

Intro

At the age of 53, with little money but full of energy and vision, Robert Mondavi changed the course of the US wine industry. Realizing a long-held dream—to create excellent Napa Valley wines that would stand in the company of the great wines of the world—he founded the iconic Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966, opening the door to the future of American fine wine.

Robert hired architect Cliff May to design the winery as an homage to California’s early missions. The warm, earth-toned arms of the building soon embraced visitors for wine tastings, tours and cultural programs; common activities at many wineries today but a radical idea at the time.

Growing

Robert Mondavi knew that the first place to begin, when he started his winery, was in the vineyard. For the home of his fledgling winery, he chose a 12-acre site in the To Kalon Vineyard, a historic property long regarded as one of Napa Valley’s finest. The vineyard’s optimum sun exposure and annual rainfall combined with low-fertility, well-drained, gravelly clay loam soils were first appreciated by Hamilton Walker Crabb, one of Napa Valley’s winegrowing pioneers, who purchased the land and planted it to vineyard in the late 1800s. The outstanding quality of his grapes inspired Crabb to name the vineyard “To Kalon,” Ancient Greek for “the highest beauty.”

Harvesting

Once the grapes have reached their optimum ripeness, they are harvested in the cool morning hours. They are picked by hand and placed into small bins in order to avoid bruising and premature crushing of the fruit. They are carried the short distance from the vineyard to the winery, where they will be sorted by hand prior to being de-stemmed and "crushed" as they go into the fermenters. The "crushing" is really a gentle cracking open of the berries just before they enter the fermenter. Movement of the fruit and resulting wine relies on the gravity flow design of the cellar, which ensures gentle handling of the fruit by eliminating the need to pump finished wine.

Fermentation / Winemaking

After the grapes go into the fermenters, the temperature in the fermenter is lowered using specially designed cooling jackets inside the wooden tanks. The grapes will be allowed to "soak" for several days. Afterward the temperature will be raised and fermentation of the sugars will begin and continue on for approximate 8-10 days. Following this fermentation the wine is allowed to remain in contact with the skins for an addition 30 days in order to maximize the extraction of color and flavor from the skins. This process is called maceration. Following maceration the wine will be drained off of the skins and flow down to empty barrels in the cellar underneath the fermentation level using gravity’s natural flow. Here the wine will be aged.

Cellaring

Robert Mondavi Winery only uses French Oak barrels for storing its wines. The degree to which the barrel uses new French oak will vary depending on the how the wine is destined to be bottled. Reserve wines will typically be in the barrels with 80-100% new French Oak. Other wines will use lower amounts depending on the style and variety of the wine in barrel. Ultimately the winegrowing team will taste the wines in barrel regularly to monitor the wines development and later determine which lots will be selected for our Reserve blend.