Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
{ SOMMjournal.com } 45 Ten years before the Judgment of Paris in 1976, an even more seminal event in the history of Napa Valley winemaking was unfolding in the sleepy village of Oakville. As grapes from the 1966 harvest were being processed, the cellar crew of the new Robert Mondavi Winery was fighting for elbow room with the carpenters, painters and plumbers who were rushing to complete the facility that everyone in the valley was talking about, and which many were openly making fun of. The official winemaker for that first harvest was a 30-something named Warren Winiarski, who was soon followed by a slightly older winemaker, this one from Croatia, who would also hone his winemaking skills at this new winery with its open architectural flourishes and its forward-looking founder. His name was Mike Grgich, and he and Winiarski would metaphorically cross paths a few years later in 1976 at Steven Spurrier's Paris wine shop. For it was Winiarski's Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from his own Stag's Leap Wine Cellars that would win the day at the "Judgment of Paris" over the more-pedigreed red Bordeaux wines, while Grgich, who had moved on to Chateau Montelena, made the Napa Valley Chardonnay that came to embarrass the producers of fabled white Burgundies in the same tasting. Late this spring, Constellation Brands, which purchased Robert Mondavi Winery in 2004, tied all these threads together with a three-day birthday party that included tastings of 50 different bottles of Robert Mondavi wines—including that first 1966 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon—as well as a festive tribute dinner for winemakers, winegrowers and vineyard managers along with Margrit Mondavi, the late Robert Mondavi's wife and winery partner. The party was the kind of feel-good celebration that Robert and Margrit themselves might have once planned. His Accomplishment: Placing Napa Valley on the World Stage It is difficult even today to over-estimate the impact that Robert Gerald Mondavi, who died in 2008 at 94, and his Oakville winery have had—and are still having—on the world of winemaking. In Napa Valley, the new win- ery, with its welcoming arch and its emphasis on wine, food and the arts, ushered in a new era of agri-tourism where dark, dank, utilitarian cellars reigned at the time. He was a master marketer within the U.S. and abroad for Napa Valley and its wines, and he truly believed in cooperation. If Mondavi raised the bar, he was happy to give a hand to those who scrambled to keep up, just as he lent winemaking equipment to Grgich when he was racing the harvest to complete his own winery in 1977. He was a world figure who lured Baron Philippe de Rothschild to come make wine with him in the New World at Opus One; he partnered with the Frescobaldis (who have been making wine for about 700 years) in Tuscan winemaking; and he served as friend and mentor to young Angelo Gaja, among many others. "This winery served as a turning point that re-energized the wine busi - ness in Napa Valley" that had languished for a long period after Prohibition, explained winery educator Mark de Vere, MW, who has worked at Robert Mondavi Winery for 19 years. "He wanted to teach people to integrate wine into their lives." "He was ground zero for winemaking. He is still more important today than even his brand." —Paul Hobbs, at the 50th Anniversary Tribute Dinner to Robert Mondavi Winery The Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon vintage 1966 began it all. Director of Winemaking Genevieve Janssens. Director of Education for Robert Mondavi Winery, Mark de Vere in front of the Robert Mondavi Winery. PHOTO: MJ WICKHAM PHOTO: ALEXANDER RUBIN PHOTO: ALEXANDER RUBIN