California wines have come a long way. When Robert Mondavi split with his brother and started Robert Mondavi Vineyards (original huh?) in the mid-60’s, there were only 30-40 vineyards in the Sonoma/Napa Valley region and California wines were seen as distinctly second class.
Within ten years, Robert Mondavi wines had won numerous awards, including blind taste test competitions in France. With French judges. Against French wines. There was no looking back.
Fifty years later there are an estimated 400 vineyards in the Sonoma & Napa valleys. Plus California wines have become better & better; they are increasingly judged ‘best in class’ in world wide competitions.
We took the Robert Mondavi winery tour which included a taste of three different wines. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour plus two out of three of us really enjoyed the wine tasting. Mary Lynn, who does not like the taste of wine, was a real trooper. She tasted all three wines and hardly ‘scrunched up her face’. Regardless, Jenna and I enjoyed all three tastings plus we finished MLA’s glasses of wine.
Gotta love the ‘factory floor’ of a winery.
It’s hard to tell however just how large these casks really are….
The grounds of the vineyard are beautiful. In fact, most of the vineyards we saw were decorated with lots of flowers, especially roses.
Aging casks stored on the lower level created a stunning vista…
Like any good tour you end up in the vineyard’s gift shop… which Jenna really enjoyed.
Jenna managed to ‘snag’ a great bottle of wine AND a beautiful hat -- complements her own beauty.
Very cool 16th century wine press…
Afterwards we went to a restaurant recommended by my brother-in-law Joe. He’s president of a huge wine importer/distributor in Virginia and has toured vineyards all over the world. He recommended we have lunch at a restaurant called Mustards, which is only a mile or two from the Mondavi vineyards. It was incredibly good.
See Ya!
Dale
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