Nice view from the Inn at Spanish Bay

From April 12 to 15, 2012 I attended the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival. What a great experience! Probably the best part of this festival was meeting such an array of impressive people from the wine and gourmet food industry.  Click on the link below to see some of the photos of the event.

Pebble Beach Wine and Food Festival

The Festival was celebrating its fifth anniversary reinventing the concept of the food festival, creating over four days of veritable culinary playground for gastronomers and oenophiles the world over. In a short time, it has become what superstar chef Daniel Boulud calls “the most high-end (festival) in the country… my personal favorite”. “The first Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival in 2008 sent a huge ripple through the luxury lifestyle world. Berhald (David, co-founder of Coastal Luxury Management (CLM)) vividly recalls the opening night reception in that year when 1,500 people showed up – seemingly all at once. “It really put into perspective what it took to create this behemoth event” he says. “It was an unbelievable moment for all of us who work so hard to make it happen”.

Highlighted by a 60,000-square-foot Lexus Grand Tasting Tent that housed two-dozen celebrity chefs, and volunteers pouring 400 unique wines, the initial event drew rave reviews.

The White Wines were Outstanding

An Enjoyable Wine Tasting Event

I felt so sorry I could not make it to one of my favorite events: “Celebrating Thirty Years of Extraordinary 1982 First-Growth Bordeaux“. The taste included the finest year from the finest chateaux in Bordeaux including all the First Growths – Mouton Rothschild,  Margaux,  Lafite, Latour and Haute-Brion – in addition to other standout bottlings. Of course, with such a great collection of ultra quality and expensive wines, seating was extremely limited. I hope to be able to make it next year, when hopefully my two great 2010 Bordeaux wines LATERALITE DROIT and LATERALITE GAUCHE will be featured in that or other similar venues.

I had a chance to meet so many interesting people like the team that led the “Lot18: How the Pros Hunt for Wine Treasures“, Kevin Boyer, (Sr. Director, Lot18), Ray Isle (Executive Wine Editor Food & Wine), Janine Lettieri (Imported Wine Director Lot18), Damon Ornowski, (MS Vin Divino) and Emily Wines (MS, Wine Director Kimton Hotels). With this group we managed to taste and enjoy the stories of an excellent selection of wines, such as the 2009 Chateau Cadillac (Cuvee du Pin Franc, Bordeaux, France), the 2009 Ariette (Quartet, Napa Valley), the 2007 Tolain (Valdisanti, Tuscany, Italy) and the 2007 Camianc , Cabernet Sauvignon (Blue Hall Vineyard, Howell Mountain, Napa), and the 2010 Casa Marin Sauvignon Gris (Estero Vineyard, San Antonio Valley, Chile)

I just finished reading the article published in the “Cooking and Eating” section of the Wall Street Journal titled ” Making the Mondavi Legacy New Again” (“On Wine”, by Jay McInerney, March 24-25, 2012).  An enjoyable article that shows very neatly  why the Mondavi story is so emblematic of Napa’s winemaking history.

After a trip that Robert Mondavi made to to Europe in 1962 he was inspired by the wines he encountered, especially the great growths of Bordeaux. This made him very passionate to the idea that the Napa Valley could produce wines to rival the greatest of the Old World. “After Robert founded his own winery, his drive, his technological innovations an his proselytizing helped raise the bar for Napa Cabernet and to create the market for premium California wines, his partnership with Baron Phillip de Rothschild in the creation of Opus One being perhaps the ultimate validation of his vision”.

Last summer view from our vineyard

Students of European viticulture know that many of the greatest wines come from hillside vineyards. The most successful of the wineries that went to the hills in Napa for their grape production became known for their cult Cabernet wines. With relatively small productions, the wines of Harlan, Colgin, Bryant Family and Screaming Eagle achieved extraordinary quality and price. They also …”pushed the envelope of ripeness and power to new extremes, inspiring raptures from the critics”. Tim Mondavi moved to the hills for his new venture, the Continuum Wines,  in areas close to where the Cults Bryant Family, Chappellet and Dalla Valle have their outstanding vineyards. From its first vintage, Continuum has been composed of a relatively large percentage of Cabernet Franc. “Tim is a fan of the Merlot-and Cab Franc-based wines of the Right Bank of Bordeaux, inevitable softer and more supple than the Cabernet Sauvignon-centric Left Bank Medoc wines, and eventually intends to include more Merlot in the blend when his Pritchard Hill Merlot wines mature”. See this great video about the Continuum State.

The Continuum State

The great bottles of the Continuum State go for about $165 per bottle for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 vintages. The 2008 Continuum is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc , 7% Petit Verdot and 5% Merlot. Compare this to the 2007 M by Michael Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon that goes for about $175 a bottle. All of these wines are perfectly balanced and although they are ready to drink now they will improve for years.

This way, Tim realized his father’s dream: to create a Napa Valley red that could stand alongside the best of the Old World wines.

On the latest issue of Wines and Vines (April 2012), Roger C. Bohmrich wrote a nice Guest Editorial tittled “Deconstructing Wine Myths”. In one of his key arguments he states that “The story of single varietals vs. blends is a perfect example of the intersection of historical influences, commercial motives and consumer responses. Bordeaux has been a potent influence in the New World – most prominently by spawning widespread plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. In large measure, the allure of these grapes originated with the reputation of Bordeaux as a paradigm to be emulated ... As it turn out, California’s emphasis on varietal nomenclature is a clever strategy since it serves to diminish competition from Bordeaux”.

It seems to me that what Tim Mondavi is doing for Napa is bringing competition with the best that Bordeaux has to offer without trying to hide the fact that the secret to Bordeaux wines success is precisely due to the blends that give this wine their very complex and balanced flavors.