Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley will be forever known as the winery that beat the French. Many people know the role that the winery’s 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon played in bringing worldwide attention to America’s premier wine country. This wine beat the best of the French Bordeaux in the famous 1976 Paris Tasting, where French judges tasted California and French wines blind. Stag’s Leap was the number one red; the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, also from Napa, was the number one white. That ’73 Cab was made by Warren Winiarski. 38 years later, Winiarski, who retired and sold the winery to a joint venture of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Marchesi Antinori, of the Italian winemaking family Antinori in 2007, was on hand to celebrate the opening of a $7 million visitor’s center overlooking the vineyard that grew the grapes for that earth shattering wine, the S.L.V. Vineyard,…
A New Start With a First Crush at Continuum Estate
“This is from the first day of our first harvest in the winery,” says Tim Mondavi, holding a glass filled with a dark purple liquid. “This was one week ago today, Cabernet Sauvignon that’s just down the hill from here. It’s an early harvest for the vintage and it shows great promise.” Tim is speaking to the folks he and his family have invited to the blessing of the grapes for the 2013 first crush at the new Continuum Estate winery. It’s a family effort by Tim, his sister Marcia Mondavi Borger and Tim’s four children Carissa, Carlo, Dante and Chiara. This blessing of the grapes is not only a celebration of harvest, it is a milestone for Tim and Marcia’s family. The 2013 vintage is the 100th year anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s birth, the family patriarch. Thanks to Robert’s belief that his and other Napa Valley wineries could…