February 2010
Cesare Mondavi: In the beginning
The family's ongoing adventure at Charles Krug
The Name Mondavi has been synonymous with Great Napa Valley wines for generations. Through the years the Mondavi family had been at the forefront of innovation and their commitment... Read more Cesare Mondavi: In the beginning
The family's ongoing adventure at Charles Krug
The Name Mondavi has been synonymous with Great Napa Valley wines for generations. Through the years the Mondavi family had been at the forefront of innovation and their commitment to quality has remained second to none as their presence in the valley has grown.
Well the times have changed, and with it the wines made by the Mondavi’s, at Charles Krug, the Robert Mondavi Winery, and most recently, at Folio Fine Wine Partners. Well, that might not be the best way to state the facts. I guess the truth is, after tasting the most recent releases from the Mondavi’s, that these are wines, while made by different branches of the family, that share a connection to the past and revel in the glory of the great wines made by the first generation of Mondavis to get a bit of Rutherford dust under their fingernails.
Gregory Dal Piaz is a proponent and admirer of a broad range of wines and styles. During his decades of collecting and tasting he has discovered that a wine need not cost a fortune to drink well. Feel free to ask him questions at the Snooth Forums where he regularly engages with beginners and experts alike.
Chapter One – Cesare Mondavi and the Charles Krug Winery
I was lucky enough to taste through some of the current offerings from Charles Krug with peter Mondavi jr. recently and was able to ask him a few questions about the current state of the winery.
Before we get on with the tasting notes and a bit about Charles Krug today let’s begin with the story of Cesare Mondavi, the Mondavi who started it all,. Cesare arrived at New York’s Ellis Island from the Marches region of Italy with $14 in his pocket and hopes of making a new, better life here in the US. Without much to go on, Cesare found his way to Minnesota in 1908.
After toiling for several years in the mines with his fellow immigrant Cesare decided to make a go of it on his own, opening a small saloon, grocery store and boarding house to service the community.
Within a few years the Mondavis had a son, Robert, and another Peter, who would grow up and revolutionize winemaking in Napa Valley but that’s a story for another day. In the 1910s Cesare was still working had to make a living in Minnesota. Ironically the enactment of prohibition in 1919 turned out to the big break for the first family of Napa Valley wine
Cesare was a member of his local Italian social club back in Minnesota and the members were determined to not have to suffer the ignominious fate of becoming teetotalers. Under the laws of prohibition each male head of a household was entitled to produce 200 gallons of wine per year. Now being in Minnesota most people were probably turning out fruit wines, but for this group of Italians that simply wouldn’t do.
So, the Italian Social Club looked around for someone to send to California and buy grapes for their production of real wine. They looked around and saw an awful lot of miners, and one saloonkeeper. Well the choice was obvious and off Cesare went to California in search of grapes suitable for making the table wine everyone so desperately wanted.
After several years of heading off to California on this annual pilgrimage Cesare finally decided it would make more sense to just move to the warm, fertile valleys of California, and he did, in 1922 he settled down with his family in Lodi.
Life in Lodi was all about grapes. Finding the best, shipping them across the country, and of course making wine. It wasn’t long before Cesare realized that the best wine came from the best grapes, and the best grapes came from Napa Valley.
Fast forward to 1943 when Cesare and Rosa Mondavi purchased the famed (first winery in Napa Valley) , but run-down, Charles Krug winery for some $75,000. 147 acres of land and some old buildings were the humble beginning of what would, in time, emerge as forces to be reckoned with. But back to the beginning.
Through a steady hand, and fine attention to detail, the Ck Mondavi family slowly rebuilt the winery and nurtured the vines back to health. By the middle of the 1950’s Charles Krug’s wine were among the very finest in the country.
By the 1960’s Charles Krug was consistently turning out great wines under the Vintage Selection label. Wines that help to rebuild the reputation of Napa Valley and establish a particular style. Those wines continue to drink well to this day and are among the greatest values in the world of mature, fine wine. Not that I really should be sharing that bit of information, though these wines of Charles Krug, the great vintage selections, somehow continue to fly under the radar and get neither the accolades they deserve nor the prices of their peers.
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Let’s hope at least the second half of that statement doesn’t see a drastic change! I was happily surprised to see, at a recent tasting, that the wine hasn’t seen much of a change over the years either. While Charles Krug has expanded their selection, including other Cabernets in their offerings, the Vintage Selection was instantly recognizable the moment I took a sniff.
I’ll let the notes on each wine do most of the talking from here on out, just a few points worth mentioning. All of the fruit for Charles Krug wines comes from vineyards owned by the family. The majority of these vineyards lie in the heart of the Napa Valley, which, no doubt, makes it easy for the family to produce such a broad array of great Cabernet based wines. As this is only the first chapter of the story there remains much to be told. Stay tuned for the next chapter as we will focus on Robert Mondavi and his eponymous winery.
2006 Charles Krug Napa Valley Merlot
93% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, .5% Petite Verdot, .5% Syrah
Aged 18 months in French Barrique, 35% new
14.5% alcohol
Smoky oak scents are prominent on the nose but there is excellent, fresh red, plummy Merlot fruit on the nose edged in cocoa and coffee giving a very balanced appeal. On the palate there is refreshing acidity helping to keep the dark, slightly earthy fruit fresh and lively. The tannins are very fine giving the wine a silky feel and a nice creamy, richness. A thread of sweetness from the wood winds through the midpalate and on through the finish, which offers a nice pure expression of Merlot. 88pts
2006 Charles Krug Yountville – Napa Valley
Cabernet Sauvignon
85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petite Verdot, 3% Syrah, 2% Malbec, 2% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petite Sirah, 1% Merlot
Aged 18 months in French and American oak
14.5% alcohol
A light little on the nose with vanilla and herb tones framing sour cherry and cassis fruit. There’s a bit more obvious sweetness from the oak here than with the Merlot and a spice component that accentuates a meaty, beefiness on the nose. Very soft in the mouth, with a broad feel, but somewhat light bodied.. This has good varietal character but finishes a bit short. It has an easygoing style full of red fruits but best over the short term. 86pts
2005 Charles Krug Generations Family Reserve
Napa Valley
62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 9% Petite Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Syrah
Aged for 22 months in French oak
14.9% alcohol
Crisp and balanced on the nose with a violet top note over a core of rich, slightly jammy red cassis fruit with a jammy strawberry undertone. There are notes of vanilla and coffee bean but they are well balanced by the bright fruit. In the mouth this is soft andrich with a velvety feel in a balanced, seamless style. This is still very young but the incipient complexity manages to squeeze through the fruit revealing integrated wood tones with hints of cinnamon, licorice, earth and cedar on the palate. The finish is long and shows nice precision with silky smooth tannins and a lingering note of woody sweetness. I would prefer this with a few more years of age. 2012-2025 92pts
2006 Charles Krug Vintage Selection
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
23 months in 100% new French Barrique
14.7% alcohol
Very ripe on the nose with a light note of wood spice accentuating rich black fruits with a candied plum edge and black spice, licorice details. This smells crisp and taut and just a little coy. Just from the nose this is recognizable as the Vintage Selection. It shares something with its long line of predecessors. Nice ripe yet restrained style in the mouth with rich fruit flavors fitted to a lean, focused structure. This shows excellent balance and while still very youthful exhibits nice length with pure cassis fruits that carries over a bit of creaminess from the mid-palate, but finishes with a gently sweetening note of mocha. You can find more impressive Napa Cabs but for my palate his is about as good as Napa Valley Cabernet gets. 2010-2025 93pts
2006 Charles Krug Limited Release X Clones
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aged 20 months in 100% new French Barrique
14.5% alcohol
The nose here is quite marked by spicy wood and candied, toasted oak tones but there is still sufficient fruit to balance the load. This is youthful and brooding with savory tones of earth and olive rising above the deep, dark berry fruit core. This enters the mouth rather tightly with lots of extract and more than obvious oak. While a bit closed feeling there is a core of rich, dark fruit that supports the fine but abundant tannins. The backend is dominated by tannin and a slight bitterness, but that would seem to be due to the wines immaturity as the overall feel is one of fine balance that blends richness, power and freshness. This needs a few years to sort itself out but should be a fine, complex example of Cabernet in due time. 2014-2025 92pts
Two Great Wines from Charles Krug
2006 Charles Krug Napa Valley Merlot
Priced from $15.99
Smoky oak scents are prominent on the nose but there is excellent, fresh red, plummy Merlot fruit on the nose edged in cocoa and coffee giving a very balanced appeal. On the palate there is refreshing acidity helping to keep the dark, slightly earthy fruit fresh and lively. This is a nicely rich Merlot with very broad appeal at a great price.
2005 Charles Krug Generations Family reserve
Priced from $35.99
Crisp and balanced on the nose with a violet top note over a core of rich, slightly jammy red cassis fruit with a jammy strawberry undertone. There are notes of vanilla and coffee bean but they are well balanced by the bright fruit. In the mouth this is soft and rich with a velvety feel in a balanced, seamless style.
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