Peter and Robert Mondavi are planning more joint ventures after the success of their recent collaboration which ended a 40-year estrangement.
As decanter.com reported in January, the brothers – both in their 90s – made a symbolic barrel of wine for last weekend’s Auction Napa Valley, their first project together since they fell out spectacularly in the early 1960s over the running of the Charles Krug winery, bought by their father.
The cask sold for US$401,000, making it one of the most expensive barrels of wine in the world. Half of the grapes for the new wine – predominantly cabernet sauvignon with petite verdot and a small percent of cabernet franc – came from Peter Mondavi’s Yountville vineyards while the other half were from Robert Mondavi’s Oakville To Kalon vineyards.
According to Peter’s son Marc, the idea had been talked about for years. He told decanter.com, ‘My father and uncle had already buried the hatchet about ten years ago and since then have been thinking about making wine together. We called the wine Ancora Una Volta, which in Italian means One More Time.’
He added, ‘While we haven’t finalised anything, we are definitely talking about other joint ventures. So while this was the first barrel of wine made by the two families, I have a strong a feeling that it will not be the last.’
The barrel will stay at Charles Krug until August 2006 when it will be bottled and given to the purchaser.
Written by Kerin O’Keefe
