“I was broken-hearted,” says Tim Mondavi, his eyes glistening at the memory of how his family was forced out of their business, Robert Mondavi Winery, 20 years ago. Wine runs through the Mondavi family’s veins. Cesare Mondavi – Tim’s grandfather – made his first vintage in 1919, and the family purchased Charles Krug Winery in 1943, before Robert broke away to establish Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966. Luckily, when Constellation took over the business, the Mondavis left with “a bag of money” – something, Tim says smiling, that is better than being heartbroken and broke. He went in search of “a new love”, and so he built Continuum. The concept was simple: to “shoot for the stars”, Tim tells me, and craft a wine that would rival Bordeaux’s First Growths – as well as continue his family’s legacy in Napa. Having seen how their family business had grown, shifted and ultimately fallen into corporate hands, he and his sister Marcia wanted to keep things simple. The first few vintages were made with fruit sourced from Robert Mondavi, largely To Kalon – vineyards that Mondavi had worked for 30 years and knew inside-out. But he knew that site was everything, and thinking of Burgundy’s best wines, he looked to the hills – keen to find his own slice of “Grand Cru” terroir. So he “kicked a lot of dirt” – and in 2008, he found something.  Up-slope from Dalla Valle, above the fog line and neighbouring Colgin, a marine biologist called Leighton Taylor had planted vines on Pritchard Hill in the 1990s. He was a wine-lover and saw the roots he put down in these rocky, volcanic soils as his retirement plan. His children didn’t share his passion, and he decided to sell: enter the Mondavis. Tim Mondavi instantly realised the potential of the site and bought the 173-acre property. Southwest-facing, with sparse top-soil and the intense sunlight that this altitude offers, he named it Sage Mountain Vineyard, after the abundant wild sage found across the property. The area had been conventionally farmed and needed work, and Mondavi brought two of his old team onto the project. Together they worked to realise the potential of these rocky 70 acres of vines, regrafting, replanting and refining the farming – drawing on organic and biodynamic practices. Gradually, they started using fruit from the site for Continuum, and from the 2012 vintage the project was exclusively estate-grown, all coming from Sage Mountain Vineyard. In 2013, they completed work on a winery on-site – meaning everything was done in-house by their own team – a first for the family. For Tim, it was a big moment. The vintage happened to coincide with his 40th harvest, as well as the 100th anniversary of his father Robert’s birth – and the label bears a dove in tribute to him, flying over the vines.  Robert was not just the patriarch of the family but of the entire valley. He passed away in 2008, just a month after Tim had shown him Sage Mountain Vineyard. He was a force of nature, who not only built the family empire but put Napa on the map, fighting relentlessly for the region on the world stage. It’s hard to imagine that he was an easy man to have as a father. “There was no such thing as too much,” says Tim. “But there was no such thing as enough.”  Robert was, Tim tells me, “go, go, go” – and it’s clear Tim wants something different for his family. With Continuum, he wanted a project that could provide a balanced life – smaller than the smallest project at Robert Mondavi. Tim’s children haven’t run away from their fate or the family business. They’ve all worked at Continuum at one point or another: sons Carlo and Dante have gone on to establish Raen, their own Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir project in 2013, while Chiara has joined her father and is firmly in situ as winemaker at Continuum.  The Mondavis might be Napa royalty, but they’re also farmers – and they’re more aware of the challenges that climate change brings than anyone else. “Mother Nature has so many ways to remind us we haven’t been taking good care of her,” Tim says ruefully. The wildfires of 2017 brought that closer to home than they’d have liked. The Continuum team was two-thirds of the way through the harvest when Tim saw the glow on the horizon from his house. He instantly called to cancel the harvest, and ensure everyone stayed far away from the winery and vineyards – but his vineyard manager ignored him and drove straight up the estate, to check that none of the crew were already on-site ahead of their early pick. Luckily the team was all fine – but those fires filled Tim with fear.  They didn’t make a 2020 vintage, so the latest release – the 2021 – is the first for two years. They’ve been gradually increasing the proportion of Cabernet Franc in the blend, and the 2021 has the highest percentage to date (representing over a third of the blend). It is, Tim says, “our finest effort” – something he attributes not just to the year’s conditions, but over a decade spent getting to know each of Sage Mountain Vineyard’s 44 blocks. “To be truly great, you have to understand the site,” he says. The wine is elegant and pure, with a saline, earthy minerality that is an imprint of the property – something that runs through every vintage. Tim’s been making wine for 50 years now, but knows that he’s in a generational business. Continuum might be his new love, but he didn’t build it for himself – it’s for his children. “Our aspirations are large enough to contain the pursuit of excellence,” he says. Ambition’s never run short in the Mondavi bloodline – but, as Continuum proves, it’s backed up by not just good instincts but the drive, grit and hard graft to make those dreams a reality. The latest release of Continuum is available now

The Mondavis shaped the Napa we know today – but now Tim Mondavi is building a new future for his family with Continuum. As the 2021 vintage is released, Sophie Thorpe spoke to Tim about the project – and how it’s about much more than wine

How Tim Mondavi is building a new future for his family with Continuum, a special wine estate on Pritchard Hill in California’s Napa Valley

Exploring Tim Mondavi’s Continuum wine estate

A lasting dream: Continuum

Prunotto’s Emanuele Baldi has an encyclopedic knowledge of Barolo. Listening to his stories about the last century in the region is fascinating, providing context to how and why Barolo and the surrounding Piedmontese regions have developed as they have. Perhaps one of the biggest developments over this time was the birth of wines from a single Cru or vineyard.  A trend that Prunotto, along with Vietti, started in the early 1960s, these single-vineyard wines completely transformed how Barolo was sold. Today it is rare for producers not to sell both single-vineyard wines as well as their Barolo “Classico” made from a blend of vineyards and regions. But this trend wasn’t necessarily Prunotto’s intention, believing only certain vineyards had the capacity to produce wines as complex as those of the blended Barolos the region had become famous for. It was Prunotto’s winemaker at the time, Beppe Colla, who came up with the idea, inspired by a trip to Burgundy with both Vietti’s Arturo Bersano and the famous Italian wine journalist, Italian gastronome and intellectual Luigi Veronelli. On discovering the region’s obsession with terroir and single-vineyard designations, they recognised the link between the region’s complex soils and wine - something familiar with certain Barolo Crus, which has a distinct imprint. The concept of the single-vineyard Barolo was born. The transition to producing a single-vineyard Barolo was not such a difficult progression, since back then Barolo producers like Prunotto were based in the city of Alba, rather than the vineyard hamlets themselves. Following the harvest, the grapes were brought to the town square on carts and for many grape growers it was only at this point that they bartered their goods with the town’s wine producers. Winemakers, Baldi told me, would famously bargain for the grapes. They would often complain that the prices were too high and that they should come back tomorrow with a better price, with the grapes already decomposing in the growers’ carts. The growers had little option but to drop their prices before their crop became worthless. Prunotto, along with the likes of Pio Cesare, was one of a handful of prestigious producers happy to pay a premium for the best grapes. With no bargaining, they saved precious time (preserving the quality of the fruit), while also securing the cream of the crop. Because different smallholders brought their separate carts of grapes, it became easy to identify the different qualities depending on the vineyards they came from. Initially, Prunotto found the Bussia grapes stood apart from the rest – which is why it became their – and the region’s – first single-vineyard Barolo (along with Vietti’s Rocche di Castiglione) in the 1961 vintage. But why did the Bussia vineyard stand out, earning a solo bottling? The historic region of Bussia (which today represents Upper Bussia) is a perfect amphitheatre of vineyards, in which different parts of the same vineyard produced grapes with different, complementary characteristics that together create a complex wine when fermented.  Baldi feels that Nebbiolo is typically best when it is a blend of different vineyard sites. Most Barolo vineyards on their own, he thinks, don’t provide the balance, intensity, and complexity of a multi-site blend. “Each of the individual vineyards are like parts of an orchestra,” he explains. Each vineyard adds a layer of complexity, whether it be perfume, tannic structure or a rich mid-palate which, if on its own, would be too simple. “Have you ever listened to hours of music played just by a double bass?” Baldi quips. “But some vineyards in Barolo are an orchestra in themselves.” And this is exactly what he, and Prunotto, feel is true for upper Bussia – an amphitheatre that can produce something truly distinct and complex. For Prunotto it is Bussia’s “grace and balance” that sets it apart. Upper Bussia is situated right in the middle of the two dividing styles of Barolo: to its east are the vineyards of Serralunga, known for their tannic structure and power; to its west are the vineyards of La Morra and Barolo, known for their elegance and florality. Upper Bussia is one of the perfectly situated Crus (similar to Cannubi and Rocche di Castiglione), capturing the best of both these styles.  The estate’s two flagship wines – Barolo Bussia and Barolo Riserva Vigna Colonnello – are both from Upper Bussia. Following the success of their 1961 single-vineyard Bussia, Prunotto went on to produce many other single-vineyard cuvées, including the Crus of Ginestra, Cannubi and Barbaresco’s Rabaja and Montestefano, but the winery always kept going back to Bussia, which has become its spiritual home. That’s also why, upon their arrival at Prunotto back in the late 1980s, the Antinori family immediately focused their attention on the Bussia Cru, purchasing seven hectares in the area. Barolo built its reputation on its blends. More often than not, these multi-vineyard blends are wines of fantastic complexity and balance. Today, however, most Barolo producers’ single-vineyard Cru wines are their most prized (and expensive) wines.  Clearly, top Crus such as Bussia, Falletto, Villero, Monprivato and more have developed a huge following amongst collectors and connoisseurs. Prunotto’s and Vietti’s pioneering leap, introducing the concept of single-vineyard wines to the region, brought a new layer of complexity to drinking Barolo. It’s even prompted cartographers to map out the region in extraordinary detail. While multi-site blended Barolos remain an important benchmark for the wider region, showcasing each producer’s blending skills; the success of the Crus in Barolo has left the drinker with a lifetime of discovery – exploring the many different nuances of each single Cru. Browse all Barolo listings

Prunotto was one of the first Barolo estates to produce a single-vineyard “Cru” wine – kickstarting a trend that has transformed the region. We spoke to Emanuele Baldi to find out what inspired the estate

Prunotto was one of the first Barolo estates to produce a single-vineyard “Cru” wine – kickstarting a trend that has transformed the region. We explore 

The birth of Barolo’s Crus

Cesare Bussolo

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