Verticals (2019) s01e08 Episode Script
RAEN
(bottle popping)
(glasses clinking)
- From a young age I knew that I wanted
to be in the wine business.
I looked up to grandfather
and my father so much.
(soft piano music)
Robert Mondavi's mark in American wine,
if you want to call it
a mark it's indelible.
- I believe that the
first thing I ever learned
about Napa Valley was
the name Robert Mondavi.
- I think Mr. Mondavi was a person
that had a huge charisma.
So, I think people loved him.
- Yeah.
If your a Mondavi and Carlo Mondavi,
It's a huge pressure.
His grandfather paved
the way for all of us
to be where we are today.
- I've been working on a farm
and in the vineyards in the cellars since,
it sounds crazy but since I was seven.
So I knew that that was
what I wanted to do.
(soft piano music)
I think in 2002, was
the year that I was hit
with what Pinot Noir could be.
(soft piano music)
Had an experience that was
a mind blowing experience
for me that was that,
"Holy smokes, this is what
"liquid can taste like."
I realized that that was something
that I wanted to achieve.
I had gone to college in
France, worked in Burgundy.
My brother Dante is a crazy Pinot Noir guy
and if you know my father Tim,
he's a crazy Pinot Noir
guy, crazy Burgundy guy.
And so he kind of infected
us at a young age.
Wine's very important for my family.
We don't have anything behind it.
It's what has put food
on my family's table
for about 100 years, it's sacred to us.
Dante and I've been looking
out on the true Sonoma coast,
way out on the edge of
where you can achieve set,
and also ripen your
fruit for about a decade.
So we began RAEN, with
a goal and the belief
that there are ground Krug sites out there
capable of sitting with the
great wines of the world
and we dove in in 2013.
It wasn't something that I think my family
was necessarily saying,
"Hey, go have fun go do a project."
Dante and I had to prove ourselves.
(orchestra music)
And then even then we had to
really kind of fight for it.
Of course we got the
blessing from our family
but RAEN is on our own
independent of anything
that my family's doing.
(orchestra music)
- I already talked to her about
when it was, it was 1957, 58.
- The first color photos.
- Her fathers in the photograph too.
- Larry did you bring us a stick?
- Don't encourage him.
- Did you bring us stick a little buddy.
Wow.
- See she has a broom.
It's so little though,
I don't think people
can it's really--
- That's a crazy shot.
- That's really early early, early about--
- 1966 probably, 67 maybe.
- Wow, the vineyards came
right up to the taster.
That's awesome.
Some of these old ones of before
it seems like there's a single thing.
Even piece of furniture
put into the winery.
- Yeah, those are wonderful photographs.
- I mean look, this is even
before the lawn was there.
To see like the shops, that's one thing
that my family has not been successful at
and I think when you talk about it with
my mom or myself or my father like
something that we get emotional about
because yeah, we haven't
missed a year of making wine
since prohibition was repealed in 33.
But it's not been through the same winery.
We've had big setbacks,
but you fall down and you get back up.
And without being asked to leave Krug,
would we have ever pursued
our dreams at Robert Mondavi
and without being kind of having the sale,
the takeover of Robert
Mondavi, would we have ever
been able to work at the
level we're working at?
Would I have been able to
follow my dreams on the coast
with Pinot Noir and with
my father and family,
my grandfather, my aunt and everything,
be able to have created Continuum.
And I think that we've elevated
everything that we're doing
and that's the one thing
that setbacks I think
can be good for, is the
ability to have a blank canvas
and look to the future
and elevate everything
that you're doing.
It's incredible I've kept
all these photos mom.
- Well, not very orderly.
- Kind of looking at
Charles Krug years huh?
- Charles Krug was the
first commercial winery
in Napa Valley.
It opened in 1861.
I think it's a beautiful
fulfillment of destiny
that a family's important as the Mondavi's
would then be the one to
purchase it after prohibition
and kind of bring its
reputation back to life.
- Honestly, I've never
seen this bottle before.
I've only tasted the 62 Cab.
I've never tasted the 62 Pinot Noir.
I've got to imagine that this is
one of the last bottles out there.
You don't see very many
bottles of Pinot Noir
because now Napa Valley is
known really for Cabernet.
So that makes it also
infinitely more rare.
This particular bottle came directly
from the Charles Krug cellar.
So, this is something that's
never left the property
from when it was produced.
1962 is a monumental year for my family
and kind of where we are now
and where we've come from,
because my grandfather
Robert boarded a plane,
flew to Bordeaux, then to Burgundy.
Visited the Garonne
cruise, the first griths,
asked questions," What are
you doing in the vineyards?
"What are you doing in the cellar?,"
And they told him everything.
They said, "Just please just
don't tell the neighbors,"
and his eyes just opened.
And that gave him the fire
in his belly that said,
"Hey we have the soil,
the climate and know how
"to make wines, that can sit
with the great ones the world."
People thought he was crazy.
"There's no way you can do that here,
just keep on doing what you're doing."
He was ridiculed a bit
and even by my own family.
And because of that trip in 62,
and that determination and
that drive and that desire
to make wines that
could, he felt could sit
among the great wines in the world
right here in this beautiful place.
He was basically asked to
leave my family's winery.
- Robert Mondavi leftCharles
Krug winery it, not
The family was not getting along.
He and his brother
actually like came close
in the, fighting in front of
the gateway of Charles Krug,
which is about as iconic a moment
as you get in family struggling.
(soft piano music)
- Something very special about 62
is the idea that my grandfather Robert
and Peter made this together.
They hadn't been through the dark times.
The dark times were ahead of them.
What we had been through as a family
some very challenging times
but the most challenging
we're still just ahead.
My grandfather and my father
have always looked to wine
as there's a lot of lessons to be taught
when you enjoy a wine.
A lot of times we get
these great bottles of wine
and then we never drink them.
We put them away and
they kind of disappear
and they're too special to open.
That was not at all how my
father or my grandfather
were or are.
I mean, for me, there's a lot of emotion
just to think about.
'Cause I mean there's
just okay the pure liquid,
how it tastes and the
emotion that that gives you
'cause I think it's
going to be exceptional.
I love older wines.
I think that there's something beautiful,
not just in the flavor and the aromatics,
but also in the story that
that wine has to tell.
Should we open it?
The cork looks really good.
(cork squeaking)
Wow, it's gonna be good.
Wow.
(laughs)
Yeah, that's really fresh.
I mean that's
The perfect example of
why how you store wines
is so important.
This has never left the site
and it's incredibly fresh
and bright and aromatic.
There is still fruit and flower present.
It's not vibrant fresh, it's more dried
and kind of those more dry rose petals
and dry herbs and
It's almost like dry rhubarb.
It's kind of surprising.
The wine definitely has,
right now, more of the fruit and flower,
it's not totally gone to
the more tertiary, earthy
secondary notes, which is surprising.
I'm actually really impressed
with how much acidity
there is in this wine.
I mean I don't even know whether to say,
yeah 12% alcohol so the
acidity is still really
holding it together.
It's a real pleasure
to be able to drink it
and see how fresh it is and think about
how happy they would be if they
could sit here and taste it
and realize how well these wines age
that they were pouring
their heart and soul into.
- This would be fun to go
through with with your dad,
it really would because he
has a lot ofvery distinct.
- So those are the joint venture days,
these are the--
- Those, yeah these are early years.
- Our foundation days after Krug and--
- This is the first harvest.
- Wow.
- (mumbles speech)
- You can just imagine how
excited and terrified he was.
(soft orchestra music)
- So Carlo, what do you
think we oughta have tonight?
- I was gonna ask you the same question.
- Well, you got a few
nice lot wines lined up.
A little bit of our history.
- [Carlo] Yeah, I mean, pretty crazy
to look at these bottles.
- [ Tim] From Krug through to Continuum.
- [Carlo] Yeah.
[Tim] Yeah, very nice.
My father and grandfather
knew what they were doing.
It was our first bottle of wine.
We started in 1919.
But the 1943 Krug was the
first one that was bottled
by our family and--
- What about 33 Sunny
Santa Lina was that just--
- No, that was all bulk wine.
- Oh, wow.
- That was all bulk wine.
And so, grapes, 1919 to
1933 and then bulk wine
from 33 on to purchase
of Charles Krug in 1943.
- Wow.
- And so this would have
been the 22nd vintage 1965.
That is the last vintage that
dad would have been there
at Charles Krug.
And then of course, Robert
Mondavi as a whole new time,
a whole new frame, he recast
the whole game of wine
at that time.
- I mean you were here for
all these vintages from 66,
but then and also back in 65.
But this was the first year that,
you were the director
you were in charge of--
- Well, I was my first
year being there full time.
- Yeah.
- And, you know, I had worked
every summer since it began.
Put the first valves on the first tanks
in before the harvest of 66, and then yes
I completed school and
started full time in 74.
But there were also institution.
- Yeah.
- No-No knew what he was doing.
And I was working with
first, Warren Winiarski,
who was the first fellow
who worked with my father
and then Mike Grgich and then Zelma Long.
And then I came on board
and that was an evolution,
but things evolve.
There's not just a quick
handover it's an evolution.
And that's the fun about wine,
but each of these tell a story.
- 74 to me is a very
special year just because,
we count all the years
and from 66 until 74
but that was the first year
where you were there full time.
- I was there full time, absolutely.
- You were there all
harvest but yeah it's a--
- Yeah, no 74 is an important year for us.
It was also a fabulous
year, I remember the season.
It was a relatively
cool late, long season,
there was a bit of rain,
a lot of people pick there
but then No-No had been to Europe
before I'd seen many of the wines
were harvested relatively late
and back then these were
old vines, very old vines
and they struggled to accumulate sugar.
And so they're relatively low sugar,
even though they had been
on the vine a long time,
but this was harvested after the rains
and the valley floor
was green from all that,
all the grasses that were
germinated by virtue of the rain.
It must have been late October,
maybe even early November,
probably late October when
we began the Cabernet.
From a business perspective,
it was also a very challenging one,
because of No-No began the winery.
All of his assets were tied up Krug.
And he had no assets, borrowed heavily
and in 1973 and 1974 the interest rates
skyrocketed 23%, 23%.
- I'm complaining about four.
- Yeah, complaining about four.
- It's lowering right now
- Wow, wow--
- But up to 23%.
If you've got a lot of debt on your books,
then that's not a good thing.
And so all the bank said,
"Bob you got to sell that bulk,"
and he said, "You know
it's a great vintage
"we'll figure out how to present it."
And that's when what he did
all the time became important,
because what he did all the time
was to compare Napa Valley wines,
compare Robert Mondavi wines
to the best of the world.
And he did that one-on-one,
one-on-one, one-on-one,
one-on-one.
And so I got to go out on the marketplace
and compare our reserve wines
with the best of Europe.
The first growths, and blind tastings
and 74 was identified as
an incredibly great year.
So it was a very important
year for lots of reasons.
- We don't get to see too
many of these older bottles,
and it'd be fun to taste this kind of.
- Well let's open it up.
Let's open it up and see what it is.
Carlo why don't you do the honors.
- Yeah.
So they're reserved that.
How many cases do you think--
- There was not that
much made at that time.
But 74 was a lot, it
was an unusual anomaly
and there was a larger crop.
But it was also a very, very good one.
Well done.
- Wow, smells great.
Lets do a little, vinification of it.
- Well you know we're very
lucky to be in wine where
we work all day and then we
get to celebrate it at night.
And we get to share it with
our friends and family,
and that's what wine is all about.
But the color is beautiful.
It's clearly had the benefit of time.
- I'm hyper impressed, wow.
Is that shocking, 'cause I
know that these old wines that,
I mean, it's so fresh,
that it has that presence
that it would be hard to--
- Old vines, mature slowly,
and they accumulated sugar
very, very slowly and they retain a nerve
and that energy that is pretty impressive.
And this vintage by virtue of
the fact it was on the vines
for a long time, has that
robe that has that embracing
of that nerve in a very elegant way.
These wines were not big in tannin
but they were big in vibrancy,
big in nerve and incredible.
But the 74 was a great
year and you can see why.
(upbeat piano music)
- So this is RAEN.
My brother and I began this
in 2013, with the goal of,
I think there's a number of things.
One, when we lost our farm in 2004,
and now I look at it back
as a very positive things
'cause my grandfather Robert was around
to begin Continuum with my father Tim.
But we took everything from the
sale and we began Continuum,
focusing on a single
wine, from the single site
at the highest level.
Of course, my family had
built a beautiful winery
and I said, "Hey, can I make RAEN there?"
And they said, "No" and I said, "Okay."
And that was kind of, I
think, a wonderful thing
because it allowed for
us to go off on our own.
You know we're in our foundation years.
Opus One was began in 79, the
winer wasn't built till 91.
Continuum, began in 05.
The winery wasn't built till 2013.
So Dante and I are in
those foundation years,
figuring out our focuses on making wines
from these lovely sites that can sit
with the great wines the world.
All right.
My hands are cold, the wax is cold.
(cork squeaking)
(cork pops)
I mean aromatically it's reminisce,
you know we're a whole
cluster house at RAEN.
So it's got, there's always
really, really brilliantly
lifted aromatics and that's
one of the reasons why
we love whole cluster, just aromatics.
It's crazy, it's got
rose petals, black tea,
kind of got that crushed cherry
but it's also like wild berries.
It's not just cherry, it's a little bit
of like a orange pith,
kind of note which is nice.
This wine always reminds
me of where the forest
meets the meadow.
You have that forest floor setting,
imagine like a oak tree, leaves
have fallen on the ground,
you're kind of walking through
that crunchy environment.
You step out onto a dry grass field,
and you kind of put one
foot back in the forest
and one foot back and in the field
and then if you took like a
gray rock from a pristine river,
and you lick it, you get that minerality.
And you put that down between
where that forest edge,
and that meadow is and you
get the forney brown mushrooms
kind of poking through
a couple of the leaves
the foliage there, red berries.
And then that smell of petrichor,
so imagine like clouds gathering overhead,
it raining on that setting.
It's a hot day it rains, clouds breaks.
Sun bakes up that smell,
that forest floor.
These sites are out on that
on the coast are remarkable.
And again, I think it's one of those areas
that'll make you think
you're a better winemaker
than you are.
(laughs)
I think that my family,
because this is what
puts food on our table, it's
not a hobby or something.
There is a level of pressure
that comes with that.
And I think that it's a good thing.
You have to have I think
that nerve, or that drive
to want to excel, to be able
to truly do well for yourself
and do well for the people
you're working with.
When I was young and I was
looking at the winemaking table
where my dad sat down and did tastings.
It wasn't uncommon to have
a PhD in soil science,
a PhD in fermentation,
MW and a master sommelier
in the room.
So it's always intimidating,
there's always a lot of
pressure to kind of live up.
And I think it's funny
because I've heard my father
talk about him feeling that pressure
and I never felt like I
would be able to really sit
at that table when I was younger.
And then I had to go on
my journey and go travel
and see the world and taste,
and open a ton of bottles
of wine and gain my confidence.
(soft piano music)
My grandfather and I were very close.
I was really fortunate
that I was 28 years old.
I got to spend that much
time with my grandfather,
and really travel the world
with him get to know him.
And drink a lot of great bottles with him
and talk with him and really
understand his philosophy.
So it was really hard
It's one thing you're like, "Okay,
"he lived a long life, a great life."
There's no denying that
when someone moves on
that you miss them a lot.
And I mean we named this
particular bottling,
"Royal St. Robert" is
dedicated to my grandfather,
and it's in honor of him.
We have a little thing on there it says,
"RGM Heart and Soul"
because he'd always tell you
to put your heart and soul
into whatever you did if
you want to excel at life,
and that's never truer than now.
And so just things like that.
Yeah, I think my whole family misses him.
And we certainly honor, we
do our best to honor him.
And I think that he's
with us, still, you know.
One of my favorite memories
was, I was younger,
I must have been 19 years
old, and my grandfather said,
"Hey Carlo, go down to the cellar
"and grab a bottle of wine,"
it was a family dinner,
we were all there at his house.
So I ran down to his cellar
and I grabbed the current release.
"Robert Mondavi Cabernet" at the time,
and I brought it up and
I showed him the bottle.
And he said, "Did you see
what's in the cellar?"
I said, "Of course, I saw
what's in the cellar."
He's like, "Go get some with some age."
So I said, "Okay," so
I ran back down there.
I thought as a joke that I
would grab this 24 Margo,
which was this crazy beautiful bottle
and I grabbed it very delicately
and I brought it up to him
and I said, How about this No-No,"
thinking that he'd be like,
"Come on man get something in between."
And he said, "That's
perfect, let's drink that."
And that was just his
philosophy he wanted to share.
There is no better time than
to drink a great wine than now.
I think that that passed on to my father.
He's incredibly generous and gracious,
with the wines that he's been a part of
and that he's collected.
And that bottle by the way,
the 24 Margo is fantastic.
And they always say that "Wine
is lifted to another level
"when you're with great company."
And the bottle on its own was lovely
and the whole entire experience
was certainly added to it.
It was a great memory.
(soft orchestra music)
It's been a journey, a long
journey has not been easy.
You know, we still have our challenges.
The harder path has been the
better path for Dante and I.
Wine businesses, I
don't think just happen.
Their hundred year plans.
So, by the time I think
the real foundation
for RAEN is built, I'll be very old.
(laughs)
And hopefully happy and
hopefully have children,
at that point in time in my life
that are helping run it.
So, it's a long term vision.
(soft orchestra music)
(glasses clinking)
- From a young age I knew that I wanted
to be in the wine business.
I looked up to grandfather
and my father so much.
(soft piano music)
Robert Mondavi's mark in American wine,
if you want to call it
a mark it's indelible.
- I believe that the
first thing I ever learned
about Napa Valley was
the name Robert Mondavi.
- I think Mr. Mondavi was a person
that had a huge charisma.
So, I think people loved him.
- Yeah.
If your a Mondavi and Carlo Mondavi,
It's a huge pressure.
His grandfather paved
the way for all of us
to be where we are today.
- I've been working on a farm
and in the vineyards in the cellars since,
it sounds crazy but since I was seven.
So I knew that that was
what I wanted to do.
(soft piano music)
I think in 2002, was
the year that I was hit
with what Pinot Noir could be.
(soft piano music)
Had an experience that was
a mind blowing experience
for me that was that,
"Holy smokes, this is what
"liquid can taste like."
I realized that that was something
that I wanted to achieve.
I had gone to college in
France, worked in Burgundy.
My brother Dante is a crazy Pinot Noir guy
and if you know my father Tim,
he's a crazy Pinot Noir
guy, crazy Burgundy guy.
And so he kind of infected
us at a young age.
Wine's very important for my family.
We don't have anything behind it.
It's what has put food
on my family's table
for about 100 years, it's sacred to us.
Dante and I've been looking
out on the true Sonoma coast,
way out on the edge of
where you can achieve set,
and also ripen your
fruit for about a decade.
So we began RAEN, with
a goal and the belief
that there are ground Krug sites out there
capable of sitting with the
great wines of the world
and we dove in in 2013.
It wasn't something that I think my family
was necessarily saying,
"Hey, go have fun go do a project."
Dante and I had to prove ourselves.
(orchestra music)
And then even then we had to
really kind of fight for it.
Of course we got the
blessing from our family
but RAEN is on our own
independent of anything
that my family's doing.
(orchestra music)
- I already talked to her about
when it was, it was 1957, 58.
- The first color photos.
- Her fathers in the photograph too.
- Larry did you bring us a stick?
- Don't encourage him.
- Did you bring us stick a little buddy.
Wow.
- See she has a broom.
It's so little though,
I don't think people
can it's really--
- That's a crazy shot.
- That's really early early, early about--
- 1966 probably, 67 maybe.
- Wow, the vineyards came
right up to the taster.
That's awesome.
Some of these old ones of before
it seems like there's a single thing.
Even piece of furniture
put into the winery.
- Yeah, those are wonderful photographs.
- I mean look, this is even
before the lawn was there.
To see like the shops, that's one thing
that my family has not been successful at
and I think when you talk about it with
my mom or myself or my father like
something that we get emotional about
because yeah, we haven't
missed a year of making wine
since prohibition was repealed in 33.
But it's not been through the same winery.
We've had big setbacks,
but you fall down and you get back up.
And without being asked to leave Krug,
would we have ever pursued
our dreams at Robert Mondavi
and without being kind of having the sale,
the takeover of Robert
Mondavi, would we have ever
been able to work at the
level we're working at?
Would I have been able to
follow my dreams on the coast
with Pinot Noir and with
my father and family,
my grandfather, my aunt and everything,
be able to have created Continuum.
And I think that we've elevated
everything that we're doing
and that's the one thing
that setbacks I think
can be good for, is the
ability to have a blank canvas
and look to the future
and elevate everything
that you're doing.
It's incredible I've kept
all these photos mom.
- Well, not very orderly.
- Kind of looking at
Charles Krug years huh?
- Charles Krug was the
first commercial winery
in Napa Valley.
It opened in 1861.
I think it's a beautiful
fulfillment of destiny
that a family's important as the Mondavi's
would then be the one to
purchase it after prohibition
and kind of bring its
reputation back to life.
- Honestly, I've never
seen this bottle before.
I've only tasted the 62 Cab.
I've never tasted the 62 Pinot Noir.
I've got to imagine that this is
one of the last bottles out there.
You don't see very many
bottles of Pinot Noir
because now Napa Valley is
known really for Cabernet.
So that makes it also
infinitely more rare.
This particular bottle came directly
from the Charles Krug cellar.
So, this is something that's
never left the property
from when it was produced.
1962 is a monumental year for my family
and kind of where we are now
and where we've come from,
because my grandfather
Robert boarded a plane,
flew to Bordeaux, then to Burgundy.
Visited the Garonne
cruise, the first griths,
asked questions," What are
you doing in the vineyards?
"What are you doing in the cellar?,"
And they told him everything.
They said, "Just please just
don't tell the neighbors,"
and his eyes just opened.
And that gave him the fire
in his belly that said,
"Hey we have the soil,
the climate and know how
"to make wines, that can sit
with the great ones the world."
People thought he was crazy.
"There's no way you can do that here,
just keep on doing what you're doing."
He was ridiculed a bit
and even by my own family.
And because of that trip in 62,
and that determination and
that drive and that desire
to make wines that
could, he felt could sit
among the great wines in the world
right here in this beautiful place.
He was basically asked to
leave my family's winery.
- Robert Mondavi leftCharles
Krug winery it, not
The family was not getting along.
He and his brother
actually like came close
in the, fighting in front of
the gateway of Charles Krug,
which is about as iconic a moment
as you get in family struggling.
(soft piano music)
- Something very special about 62
is the idea that my grandfather Robert
and Peter made this together.
They hadn't been through the dark times.
The dark times were ahead of them.
What we had been through as a family
some very challenging times
but the most challenging
we're still just ahead.
My grandfather and my father
have always looked to wine
as there's a lot of lessons to be taught
when you enjoy a wine.
A lot of times we get
these great bottles of wine
and then we never drink them.
We put them away and
they kind of disappear
and they're too special to open.
That was not at all how my
father or my grandfather
were or are.
I mean, for me, there's a lot of emotion
just to think about.
'Cause I mean there's
just okay the pure liquid,
how it tastes and the
emotion that that gives you
'cause I think it's
going to be exceptional.
I love older wines.
I think that there's something beautiful,
not just in the flavor and the aromatics,
but also in the story that
that wine has to tell.
Should we open it?
The cork looks really good.
(cork squeaking)
Wow, it's gonna be good.
Wow.
(laughs)
Yeah, that's really fresh.
I mean that's
The perfect example of
why how you store wines
is so important.
This has never left the site
and it's incredibly fresh
and bright and aromatic.
There is still fruit and flower present.
It's not vibrant fresh, it's more dried
and kind of those more dry rose petals
and dry herbs and
It's almost like dry rhubarb.
It's kind of surprising.
The wine definitely has,
right now, more of the fruit and flower,
it's not totally gone to
the more tertiary, earthy
secondary notes, which is surprising.
I'm actually really impressed
with how much acidity
there is in this wine.
I mean I don't even know whether to say,
yeah 12% alcohol so the
acidity is still really
holding it together.
It's a real pleasure
to be able to drink it
and see how fresh it is and think about
how happy they would be if they
could sit here and taste it
and realize how well these wines age
that they were pouring
their heart and soul into.
- This would be fun to go
through with with your dad,
it really would because he
has a lot ofvery distinct.
- So those are the joint venture days,
these are the--
- Those, yeah these are early years.
- Our foundation days after Krug and--
- This is the first harvest.
- Wow.
- (mumbles speech)
- You can just imagine how
excited and terrified he was.
(soft orchestra music)
- So Carlo, what do you
think we oughta have tonight?
- I was gonna ask you the same question.
- Well, you got a few
nice lot wines lined up.
A little bit of our history.
- [Carlo] Yeah, I mean, pretty crazy
to look at these bottles.
- [ Tim] From Krug through to Continuum.
- [Carlo] Yeah.
[Tim] Yeah, very nice.
My father and grandfather
knew what they were doing.
It was our first bottle of wine.
We started in 1919.
But the 1943 Krug was the
first one that was bottled
by our family and--
- What about 33 Sunny
Santa Lina was that just--
- No, that was all bulk wine.
- Oh, wow.
- That was all bulk wine.
And so, grapes, 1919 to
1933 and then bulk wine
from 33 on to purchase
of Charles Krug in 1943.
- Wow.
- And so this would have
been the 22nd vintage 1965.
That is the last vintage that
dad would have been there
at Charles Krug.
And then of course, Robert
Mondavi as a whole new time,
a whole new frame, he recast
the whole game of wine
at that time.
- I mean you were here for
all these vintages from 66,
but then and also back in 65.
But this was the first year that,
you were the director
you were in charge of--
- Well, I was my first
year being there full time.
- Yeah.
- And, you know, I had worked
every summer since it began.
Put the first valves on the first tanks
in before the harvest of 66, and then yes
I completed school and
started full time in 74.
But there were also institution.
- Yeah.
- No-No knew what he was doing.
And I was working with
first, Warren Winiarski,
who was the first fellow
who worked with my father
and then Mike Grgich and then Zelma Long.
And then I came on board
and that was an evolution,
but things evolve.
There's not just a quick
handover it's an evolution.
And that's the fun about wine,
but each of these tell a story.
- 74 to me is a very
special year just because,
we count all the years
and from 66 until 74
but that was the first year
where you were there full time.
- I was there full time, absolutely.
- You were there all
harvest but yeah it's a--
- Yeah, no 74 is an important year for us.
It was also a fabulous
year, I remember the season.
It was a relatively
cool late, long season,
there was a bit of rain,
a lot of people pick there
but then No-No had been to Europe
before I'd seen many of the wines
were harvested relatively late
and back then these were
old vines, very old vines
and they struggled to accumulate sugar.
And so they're relatively low sugar,
even though they had been
on the vine a long time,
but this was harvested after the rains
and the valley floor
was green from all that,
all the grasses that were
germinated by virtue of the rain.
It must have been late October,
maybe even early November,
probably late October when
we began the Cabernet.
From a business perspective,
it was also a very challenging one,
because of No-No began the winery.
All of his assets were tied up Krug.
And he had no assets, borrowed heavily
and in 1973 and 1974 the interest rates
skyrocketed 23%, 23%.
- I'm complaining about four.
- Yeah, complaining about four.
- It's lowering right now
- Wow, wow--
- But up to 23%.
If you've got a lot of debt on your books,
then that's not a good thing.
And so all the bank said,
"Bob you got to sell that bulk,"
and he said, "You know
it's a great vintage
"we'll figure out how to present it."
And that's when what he did
all the time became important,
because what he did all the time
was to compare Napa Valley wines,
compare Robert Mondavi wines
to the best of the world.
And he did that one-on-one,
one-on-one, one-on-one,
one-on-one.
And so I got to go out on the marketplace
and compare our reserve wines
with the best of Europe.
The first growths, and blind tastings
and 74 was identified as
an incredibly great year.
So it was a very important
year for lots of reasons.
- We don't get to see too
many of these older bottles,
and it'd be fun to taste this kind of.
- Well let's open it up.
Let's open it up and see what it is.
Carlo why don't you do the honors.
- Yeah.
So they're reserved that.
How many cases do you think--
- There was not that
much made at that time.
But 74 was a lot, it
was an unusual anomaly
and there was a larger crop.
But it was also a very, very good one.
Well done.
- Wow, smells great.
Lets do a little, vinification of it.
- Well you know we're very
lucky to be in wine where
we work all day and then we
get to celebrate it at night.
And we get to share it with
our friends and family,
and that's what wine is all about.
But the color is beautiful.
It's clearly had the benefit of time.
- I'm hyper impressed, wow.
Is that shocking, 'cause I
know that these old wines that,
I mean, it's so fresh,
that it has that presence
that it would be hard to--
- Old vines, mature slowly,
and they accumulated sugar
very, very slowly and they retain a nerve
and that energy that is pretty impressive.
And this vintage by virtue of
the fact it was on the vines
for a long time, has that
robe that has that embracing
of that nerve in a very elegant way.
These wines were not big in tannin
but they were big in vibrancy,
big in nerve and incredible.
But the 74 was a great
year and you can see why.
(upbeat piano music)
- So this is RAEN.
My brother and I began this
in 2013, with the goal of,
I think there's a number of things.
One, when we lost our farm in 2004,
and now I look at it back
as a very positive things
'cause my grandfather Robert was around
to begin Continuum with my father Tim.
But we took everything from the
sale and we began Continuum,
focusing on a single
wine, from the single site
at the highest level.
Of course, my family had
built a beautiful winery
and I said, "Hey, can I make RAEN there?"
And they said, "No" and I said, "Okay."
And that was kind of, I
think, a wonderful thing
because it allowed for
us to go off on our own.
You know we're in our foundation years.
Opus One was began in 79, the
winer wasn't built till 91.
Continuum, began in 05.
The winery wasn't built till 2013.
So Dante and I are in
those foundation years,
figuring out our focuses on making wines
from these lovely sites that can sit
with the great wines the world.
All right.
My hands are cold, the wax is cold.
(cork squeaking)
(cork pops)
I mean aromatically it's reminisce,
you know we're a whole
cluster house at RAEN.
So it's got, there's always
really, really brilliantly
lifted aromatics and that's
one of the reasons why
we love whole cluster, just aromatics.
It's crazy, it's got
rose petals, black tea,
kind of got that crushed cherry
but it's also like wild berries.
It's not just cherry, it's a little bit
of like a orange pith,
kind of note which is nice.
This wine always reminds
me of where the forest
meets the meadow.
You have that forest floor setting,
imagine like a oak tree, leaves
have fallen on the ground,
you're kind of walking through
that crunchy environment.
You step out onto a dry grass field,
and you kind of put one
foot back in the forest
and one foot back and in the field
and then if you took like a
gray rock from a pristine river,
and you lick it, you get that minerality.
And you put that down between
where that forest edge,
and that meadow is and you
get the forney brown mushrooms
kind of poking through
a couple of the leaves
the foliage there, red berries.
And then that smell of petrichor,
so imagine like clouds gathering overhead,
it raining on that setting.
It's a hot day it rains, clouds breaks.
Sun bakes up that smell,
that forest floor.
These sites are out on that
on the coast are remarkable.
And again, I think it's one of those areas
that'll make you think
you're a better winemaker
than you are.
(laughs)
I think that my family,
because this is what
puts food on our table, it's
not a hobby or something.
There is a level of pressure
that comes with that.
And I think that it's a good thing.
You have to have I think
that nerve, or that drive
to want to excel, to be able
to truly do well for yourself
and do well for the people
you're working with.
When I was young and I was
looking at the winemaking table
where my dad sat down and did tastings.
It wasn't uncommon to have
a PhD in soil science,
a PhD in fermentation,
MW and a master sommelier
in the room.
So it's always intimidating,
there's always a lot of
pressure to kind of live up.
And I think it's funny
because I've heard my father
talk about him feeling that pressure
and I never felt like I
would be able to really sit
at that table when I was younger.
And then I had to go on
my journey and go travel
and see the world and taste,
and open a ton of bottles
of wine and gain my confidence.
(soft piano music)
My grandfather and I were very close.
I was really fortunate
that I was 28 years old.
I got to spend that much
time with my grandfather,
and really travel the world
with him get to know him.
And drink a lot of great bottles with him
and talk with him and really
understand his philosophy.
So it was really hard
It's one thing you're like, "Okay,
"he lived a long life, a great life."
There's no denying that
when someone moves on
that you miss them a lot.
And I mean we named this
particular bottling,
"Royal St. Robert" is
dedicated to my grandfather,
and it's in honor of him.
We have a little thing on there it says,
"RGM Heart and Soul"
because he'd always tell you
to put your heart and soul
into whatever you did if
you want to excel at life,
and that's never truer than now.
And so just things like that.
Yeah, I think my whole family misses him.
And we certainly honor, we
do our best to honor him.
And I think that he's
with us, still, you know.
One of my favorite memories
was, I was younger,
I must have been 19 years
old, and my grandfather said,
"Hey Carlo, go down to the cellar
"and grab a bottle of wine,"
it was a family dinner,
we were all there at his house.
So I ran down to his cellar
and I grabbed the current release.
"Robert Mondavi Cabernet" at the time,
and I brought it up and
I showed him the bottle.
And he said, "Did you see
what's in the cellar?"
I said, "Of course, I saw
what's in the cellar."
He's like, "Go get some with some age."
So I said, "Okay," so
I ran back down there.
I thought as a joke that I
would grab this 24 Margo,
which was this crazy beautiful bottle
and I grabbed it very delicately
and I brought it up to him
and I said, How about this No-No,"
thinking that he'd be like,
"Come on man get something in between."
And he said, "That's
perfect, let's drink that."
And that was just his
philosophy he wanted to share.
There is no better time than
to drink a great wine than now.
I think that that passed on to my father.
He's incredibly generous and gracious,
with the wines that he's been a part of
and that he's collected.
And that bottle by the way,
the 24 Margo is fantastic.
And they always say that "Wine
is lifted to another level
"when you're with great company."
And the bottle on its own was lovely
and the whole entire experience
was certainly added to it.
It was a great memory.
(soft orchestra music)
It's been a journey, a long
journey has not been easy.
You know, we still have our challenges.
The harder path has been the
better path for Dante and I.
Wine businesses, I
don't think just happen.
Their hundred year plans.
So, by the time I think
the real foundation
for RAEN is built, I'll be very old.
(laughs)
And hopefully happy and
hopefully have children,
at that point in time in my life
that are helping run it.
So, it's a long term vision.
(soft orchestra music)