Jonathan Nossiter’s Mondovino, The Series, is a revelation from beginning to end. On four dvds, ten one-hour episodes, not only does it build upon themes pursued in the original 2004 theatrical release, but it substantially deepens them as well. For those who have only seen the original, they will be greatly rewarded by viewing the enormous amount of material that had to be set aside to fashion a marketable film. For those who come to Mondovino, The Series fresh, they are in for a hilarious, educational ride.
One of the most fascinating aspects of The Series is the sheer number of new insights uttered by all the original players. I well remember the harsh criticism heaped on Mr. Nossiter for his alleged politically motivated edit, especially of remarks by Robert Parker and Michel Rolland. Well, in The Series each gentleman greatly expand on their positions with respect to globalization, tradition and the use and abuse of history. Threadbare do the protestations of a slanted edit become when throughout The Series Parker and Rolland insist on digging deeper holes. But, one the other hand, they thereby become much more human, frail, seemingly caught in an echo chamber, a hall of mirrors of mutual admiration. For here recounted is no ordinary love story. Flaubert’s brilliant Bouvard et Pecuchét does come to mind. Yes, let us not forget Mondovino, The Series is high comedy.
And there are many new characters: Jan Shrem of Clos Pegase, Bill Harlan, Jose Espinoza, psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche of Chateau de Pommard, Catherine Montalbetti, editor of the Hachette Wine Guide, a very curious plastic surgeon from Paris, Dr. Eric Auclair, Steve Harvey of Folie à Deux, Pierre Siri, proprietor of the artisanal-class Iris du Gayou, Becky Wasserman, Charlie Rodriguez, José Mounier… the list of new and interesting voices is vast. Indeed, Mondovino, The Series swallows the theatrical release whole. (Though there are a small number scenes in the original that did not make it into The Series. But I’ll leave their identification to the film buff!) Incidentally, the world premier of this expanded film was in December, 2006, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I have not been able to determine if that release differs significantly.
What I would like to do for the balance of this post is to provide a brief summary of each of the 10 chapters for the convenience of the viewer. (All images below are used with the generous permission of Jonathan Nossiter.)
1) Where’s Asterix? (or Little Town, Big Hell)
This first episode expands on broader themes most closely identified with the theatrical release, the global versus the local, narrowly drawn, the battle was between the town of Aniane in the Languedoc, pop. 2,300, and the Mondavis of California. The conflict revolved around two nominally independent issues: the preservation of a forest and the resistance to a global corporation. But there is much ambiguity introduced into this new cinematic presentation. Of course we are introduced to Aimé Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac, wine consultant Michel Rolland (I wonder if he still smokes?), Laurent Vaille of Domaine de La Grange des Pères, the Mondavis and their winery staff, Bernard Magrez, the former socialist mayor, André Ruiz and his elected replacement, the communist Manuel Diaz. We meet Mr. and Mrs. Gay, the founders of Citizens for the Protection of the Forest. Many new locals speak about the conflict, and we hear more from the clergy and from a very entertaining police officer most concerned with parking problems additional tourism might bring!
Interestingly, the more the ‘players’ in this episode speak, the more nuanced do their positions become. A viewer upon finishing this first chapter comes away with a far greater appreciation of the multiple meanings, as much personal and political, of the battle to save the forest. There is as much bad faith as honesty, as much cowardice as courage. No political position is as it seems. It is in this discordance that comedy reigns surpreme.
2) Magic Potion
Next we’re off to Burgundy. In Volnay we meet Hubert de Montille, his wife Christiane, and their three children, Isabelle, Etienne and the sublime Alix. Lighting up the screen is the magisterial Aubert de Villaine of the Domaine de la Romanée Conti (pictured). Also in part two we are first introduced to Jean-Charles Boisset, Director of the Boisset Group, and young Alix Montille’s employer at the time. Jean-Charles Boisset will make numerous appearances throughout The Series, each more ‘revealing’ than the last. Of great amusement is Floris Lemstra, General Manager of Marketing for Boisset. He awkwardly spies on Alix’s every exchanges with Mr. Nossiter while they are on the Boisset grounds.
Of the Montille children, truly remarkable new footage is included. Our understanding of Alix and Etienne is improved, both fascinating people. We follow a harvest with the workers grumbling over labor issues and the family’s response. Greek and Libyan students on break from the University of London stir up trouble but are seemingly placated by a fabulous lunch prepared by Christine. Great exchanges are enjoyed throughout!
Back to Napa where we are introduced to Chateau and Estate Wines (Diageo) employees Gregg Fowler, the head of Vineyard Operations, and Peter Hall, VP of Consumer Strategies (can you say Red Chardonnay?) We close with a visit to Sterling, a subsidiary of Seagrams, a subsidiary of Diageo. Much mayhem is set upon the world! Here the noose tightens another inch on the issue of globalization.
3) Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
This third episode is the most revealing, weird and refreshing one-hour look the wine industry likely to be shot for a very long time. Deserving of wide circulation, it is a virtually perfect series of contrasting personalities. We meet the eccentric Jan Shrem of Clos Pegase, a comic figure of the first order, reflecting on art, the good life and the triumph of a kind of western aesthetic imperialism. Throw in eerie footage of Bill Harlan haunting his own winery, opening and closing each and every door, briefly opening then drawing drapes in an apparent effort to contain or exclude some prowling malevolence; mix in the strangely remote Staglins, Sheri, Garen and their daughter, Shannon; add farm worker observations about working conditions and the absence of overtime with an explore of antiseptic environment of Opus One, all capped by a sunset barbeque with former farm worker, now winemaker, Luis Ochoa, his wife and neighbors outside their trailer/winery…. This is the merest hint of the brilliant cross-cutting hilarity Mr. Nossiter assembles. (I hasten to add that of all the dogs and cats we meet, it is in Luis Ochoa’s back forty where we see the one and only jack rabbit in the entire ten-hour series.)
There was one moment I found very affecting. Owing to the fuller fleshing out of characters the longer series permits, we are given, per force, finer shadings of the Mondavi brood. For reasons not entirely clear to me, when Michael Mondavi says, “I got my father back”, he relates a painful truth that was quite beautiful, at least to this viewer. Margrit at Copia is equally touching. Indeed, the Mondavi story, built fragment by filmic fragment through the ten-part series, will finally add up to a tour de force in its own right by the series’ end.
There is much else that is commendable but I cannot resist mentioning Bill Harlan’s reply to Mr. Nossiter’s question, “Does Napa have an identity?” Mr. Harlan replies, “To me the Napa Valley is kind of as it’s always been. It’s been in transition of becoming what it will be in another 100 years.” No post-modernist academic (or Stephen Colbert, for that matter) could have uttered a more confounding sentence. A pitch-perfect summation of episode 3.
4) Pax Panoramix
We begin in Jurançon, Pyrenees at the Domaine de Souch where we meet Yvonne Hegoburu. An exalted woman, she offers powerful insights into what growing grapes means. As well as in Sardinia, Bosa specifically, where next we land. Battista and Lina Colombu, again, express puzzlement at the increasing homogenization of wine globally. This episode is particularly rich in contrasting opinion. Neal Rosenthal hits back hard. Michel Rolland blithely goes about his business. There is more push back in Burgundy with wisdom from Hubert Montille and Aubert de Villaine. Michael Broadbent joins in. Patrick Leon of Chateau Mouton-Rothschild does not seem to know an artisanal-class winery’s vines are interplanted with his, those of Domaine Iris du Gayou’s. Pierre Siri, winemaker for Iris, is a shrewd addition to the film. There is shown a fascinating meditation on the 1855 Bordeaux classification from multiple points of view. Perhaps most delightful is an interview with Jean-Michel Cazes, owner of the 5th growth Lynch Bages. He takes the filmmaker on a delightful tour of the bizarre architecture of prominent Bordeaux wineries. “There is really no local architecture!”
5) The Appian Way
The viewer might be wondering what is left to prove generally about the globalization of a limited wine style having heard multiple voices either pointing to or demonstrating the affirmative. And yet we are only four episodes into The Series. Previously critics have laid the blame for the argument forcefully made in the theatrical version of Mondovino at Mr. Nossiter’s feet. It was his selective editing that was to blame. That argument can no longer be sustained. And with episode 5 the beat goes on. But a more aggressively drawn contrast begins to emerge. Here is considered the influence of Robert Parker. From Rolland to garagiste Jean-Luc Thunevin of Chateau Valandraud in St. Émilion, from a visit to Leo McCloskey of Enologix, the largest wine consulting firm in the US, to Parker himself, it is in this episode where the rubber meets the road. I defy anyone to sit through Mr. Parker’s greatly expanded comments on his own influence, on pricing, terroir, his indifference to history and not come away astonished at his arrogance. Michel Rolland, as well. And a new, fresh voice is heard here, Catherine Montalbetti, the editor of the Hachette Wine Guide. She speaks well of the standardization of taste. And she goes on to say, “Because no way can you tell whether it comes from California, Chile, Bordeaux or Languedoc.”
6) Quo Vademus?
What does an older bottle of wine taste like? Neal Rosenthal laments the way prominent critics interfere with the cultivation of a tasting culture. In a cross-cut Parker explains “As I get older, I like them younger.” Jean-Luc Thunevin, much to the displeasure of his wife, says “Well, I say I don’t like old women.” Quo vademus? Where are we going? This episode explores the ‘plastic surgery’ of wine, especially the increasing use of new French oak. Parker dwells on his liking of vanilla and toastiness, and considering its prevalence and that he likes wines younger, it is very amusing we are taken to the Paris office of plastic surgeon, Dr. Eric Auclair. Back in Napa, Leo McCloskey, CEO of Enologix, notes the similarity of palates of Parker and the Wine Spectator. Indeed, so closely have become the palates of leading critics that Enologix specifically works with wineries to predict what the critics will say! Tom Matthews of the Wine Spectator is interviewed. More from Burgundy. Marketing has assumed a central role. Among the Montille’s family, Etienne explains that the enemy is ignorance and standardization, over-simplification and money, of course. Diversity, he insists, is the highest value. It was a pleasure to see Becky Wasserman and Russell Hone make an appearance. Yvonne Hegoburu, Aimé Guibert, Aubert de Villaine, and Michel Lafarge all join in discussing the matter of marketing.
Tourists are caught plundering the grapes of Romanée Conti! Aubert de Villaine’s reaction is priceless. We close with a brief moments with the eternal Charlotte Rampling.
7) All Roads Lead to Rome
Episode 7 is framed by the question of authorship versus midwifery in the creation of a wine. We begin in Paris at the Ministry of Finance. Alain Châtelet of the Govt. Bureau on Wine Fraud leads us through the delicate question of consumer protection with respect to fraudulent wines. Very difficult to prosecute owning to the reluctance of victims to step forward. Great ego investment in wine. And what can you say about a wine that is both pleasurable and a counterfeit? Indeed, this entire episode could be called “the psychoanalysis of wine” for we next meet Jean Laplanche of Chateau de Pommard. “I have a complex life, to tell the truth. Did you know that?”, he asks. Laplanche remains one of Jacques Lacan’s greatest students. Author of a dozen books on various aspects of the Freudian oeuvre, Laplanche introduces us to what might be called the ’strong’ argument: that only the author’s signature on the bottle is the guarantee of quality and authenticity of the contents. In stark contrast to his position are those of Montille and Villaine who hold that they are simply midwives. In broadly psychoanalytic terms you have a repositioning of the question of the Father and the Mother. (The consumer plays the role of child, constantly put on the spot to declare his unconditional love for one or the other.) Great anxiety! But what all gentlemen can agree upon is that for Robert Parker, as Laplanche puts it, “The complexity of Burgundy repulses him.” This is, I believe, a brilliant insight. There is a tremendous amount of important material here. Why do consumers feel the need for the strong hand of wine gurus? Why the anxiety over being cheated or of not knowing how to taste? How is it that powerful marketing forces have come between the consumer and their palates?
We next meet Scott Harvey, winemaker for Folie à Deux. That winery was named after the founders’ madness of the same name: the condition of two closely related people sharing the same delusional idea, in this case, of starting a winery. But perhaps the most interesting moments of this episode belong to Jean-Charles Boisset, Director of the Boisett Group, #1 in Burgundy sales. I shall not soon forget his unique method pf punching down the cap! Or his plan to produce a limited edition of a super-blend of wines from diverse Boisset holdings, a wine with no origins, possessing neither Mother nor Father, neither terroir nor authorship. The episode closes on a very painful recollection by Bernard Magrez. It seems his father used to pin a very public sign on his back reading ‘I am a lazy boy’ when he was a child. As he says, “If you’ve lived through that it is much harder to love anyone”.
8 ) Crossing the Rubicon
9) Et tu Brute…
Intrigue and regret in Italy. Here is recounted, finished in episode 9, the story of the Antinoris and the Frescobaldis, both aristocratic families of great antiquity. It is a grand tale of betrayal and familial discord, of false starts and of finding the courage to go on. A deep history is on display. Ornellia’s loss is recounted. It is a particularly ugly aspect of contemporary wine culture that history counts for so little. From Rolland to Parker, Boisset to Mondavi, there is simply no room for historical reflection in the pursuit of global markets. Unless one may make a buck off of it. But as The Series reveals again and again, whether it be Lafarge recounting German occupation of his family’s winery, Aubert de Villaine describing Burgundy’s religious patrimony, or Aimé Guibert railing against the erasure of cultural memory, real families, real histories are grinding forward.
Among the most bizarre and destructive of personalities on display is that of James Suckling. His casual child’s play with the meaning of the lives of others is both laughable and chilling. I’ll say no more except that his comments are greatly expanded from those presented in the theatrical release of Mondovino. Episodes 8 and 9 are truly a tour de force.
10) Veni, vidi, vendidi (I came, I saw, I sold)
In the final episode we may take a bit of a breather. Introduced to Chile, Brazil and Argentina (and the film crew’s mysterious denial of entry into Paraguay) we meet many fresh faces, many new winemakers. But we are also introduced to the persistent racism and class struggle that have blemished so much of the southern continent’s history. Rolland’s shadow falls even here. There is a strange, indeed, terribly tragic way in which the world of wine is repeatedly limited, boxed in, by the presence of so few authorities and consultants. How strange to wander the back country of Argentina and still hear the names Parker, Rolland, the monotonous incantation of so few names. But now, at the episode’s conclusion, we, too, have names, new names: Charlie Rodriguez, Isanette Bianchetti and Mauro Tedesco, José Mounier…
I highly recommend Mondovino, The Series.
Admin
My good friend, and occasional contributor to this space, Brandon Miller, has taken the plunge: His passion for wine, especially Pinot Noir, has gotten the better of him and he has decided to offer his own label, Coleman Nicole. Brandon has been a prolific writer of tasting notes. He has tasted wines far and wide. He can speak fluently about most of the wines of California, certainly the varietals, but also of Oregon. Yet he is not a wine geek, nor does he hoard rare bottles. He is first and foremost a wine lover. His knowledge base is in tasting. A humble family man, it has been my great pleasure to know him and his lovely wife, Denyce, these last few years.
One last note: What I hope especially comes through in the following interview is the great joy Brandon took in discussing his adventure in winemaking, every step.
Admin Well, Brandon, how exciting, how delightful it is to see you here in San Francisco, at the restaurant Yuet Lee in Chinatown, and to see this lovely bottle of wine you’ve given me, your Coleman Nicole Rosé. Where on Earth did you come up with this idea? How did you find the patience to persist?
Brandon Miller I wanted to come up with something a little different. I didn’t want to create a wine company that was solely based on the marketing of the label. I didn’t want to come up with a clever name; I appreciate those names but I didn’t want to come up with a catchphrase name like ‘Sojourn’, that kind of thing. So I took my children’s middle names and created a wine company. I floated it around with a few people. Most people say to me, ‘hey, how’d you come up with that?’ They kind of give me a funny look first, and then when I tell them about my children they think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!
As far as having the patience to persist, when I started I had to tell myself you got to give it 24 months before there is going to be any real traction. And then after that you’ve got to give yourself another three years to create a company that makes something that people like and enjoy on a regular basis, and flock to.
You’re well-known in certain circles to be a strong Pinot enthusiast. And you’ve brought here today this Rosé of Pinot made from fruit sourced on the Sonoma Coast. Are all your wines Pinots? Are they single vineyard designations?
BM That’s what we’re trying for, yes. With the ‘08 vineyard we’re 100% Sonoma Coast Pinot. We’re not adding in Syrah, or anything to mess with the flavor. I’m a Pinot varietal nut. I love the flavor. I don’t really want to mess with that. Now, we will mess with different clones here and there. But we want to stick with a true…, and I hate using the word ‘terroir’, I really do, because I don’t think half the people out there really understand the definition, or they have there own definition, which is completely fine. But I really want people to be able to say this vineyard brings these characteristics on a semi-consistent basis; and I love the purity of that. I really do.
So, yes. It’s going to be 100% Pinots and we’re going to try like hell to stick to single vineyards.
How much wine have you made this first time out? What about barrels? A thousand questions….
BM The first year, ‘08, we did eight barrels, so we did roughly 200 cases, somewhere in there. Half of that is new French oak and the other half is neutral oak. We’re not messing around with any Austrian or American oak, it’s all 100% French. It’s going to age anywhere between 14 and 18 months depending on how we feel the juice is doing. For ‘09 we’re going the same route. We’ve changed a few coopers. The Remond cooper we’re finding to be just a fantastic barrel, so we’re going with 25% of Remond alone.
It’s been interesting having to go through clearing house and watching the euro to make sure you’re at the right price. It’s certainly different than the game I’ve been used to.
And what about the price point? How did you settle on it?
BM I actually did a lot of research before I decided on pricing. I looked at all the competition, looked at all where all the single vineyard stuff is, where blending is… I’m the type of person that’s not going to want to raise prices on my loyal customers. So, when we designate ’single vineyard’ we certainly have the ability to go higher in price as the farmers need to make their money; but $38 a bottle for us seems to be right in the middle of not taking advantage of people and still making a little bit of money. (laughs) I mean, we’re very small on our margins because we don’t own vineyards, and I’m still learning the winemaking trade, so I have a winemaker. I couldn’t even be considered to be the associate winemaker. I’m like the associate winemaker who wants to be a winemaker who is in training for it all. So we have to pay for that, as well. We’re trying to meet in the middle, and the research told me that between the Siduris and the Kosta Browns, the big Pinot guys here in the United States, we thought that was a fair price. [Brandon mentioned to me, though it was not recorded, that the rosé might sell for $12 to $15-Admin]
And what about your wine style? What are you after?
BM I have to admit that I fell in love with Kosta Brown. But I’m also a huge Rhys fan and a huge Rivers-Marie fan. I think the grape in general just brings so much on all the different levels that when it’s done right, it can be done right big and it can be done right laid back. Done right, it’s just delicious.
Our style is probably on the bigger side, but we’re not as big as Kosta Brown. A lot depends on how we bought our grapes in ‘08. We had to buy them through a different winery and they had the say as to when they were picked. The brix went a little high on us. This year we’re going to tone it back just a little bit.
We’re doing both a Pommard clone and some 777. I enjoy the Pommard clone. I really enjoy the meatiness, the thickness of the grape, I love the mouthfeel. The 777 can go a little more fruity and then get a little bit on the bigger side, of course, depending on when you pick. My deal is always balance. So if it’s big or laid back or Burgundian, it must have balance.
About that, Burgundy. People are always looking for the next best Burgundy wine here in the West, and I include Oregon in that, too. I’m a huge Oregon Pinot fan. I think that since this is California, this is what California gives to the Pinot grape, so let’s enjoy it. There’s so much good wine out there it’s just not worth pigeon-holing who we are as winemakers. Most people love Burgundy, it’s pricey, but to go with that more elegant style? I would bend that way. But I’m still feeling it all out.
How did you come by your vineyard selection?
BM The first year, I’ve got a plan where I want to start with Sonoma Coast. I love what Sonoma Coast brings. I also love what Russian River brings. I tend to like some Russian River Pinots a lot better than Sonoma Coast. But Sonoma Coast was where we had our ‘in’, that’s where we were able to buy from first. Russian River is a little more locked down when it comes to buying fruit. But once we a couple of years under our belt with Sonoma Coast we’re going to move and do a Russian River bottling. And then probably Anderson Valley and Mendocino. Then we’re going to move to either the Santa Lucia Highlands or the Santa Cruz Mountains. Some of the stuff coming out of the Santa Cruz Mountains is really, really difficult to ignore. It’s really top-notch juice. And if we get big enough then hopefully one day we’ll do an Oregon bottling. I think that’d be fun.
Did you go to a bank and present them with a five-year plan? How did you secure financing? You’re smiling…
BM To say that did it all on my own would be a lie. (laughs) It’s four families that have a passion for wine. I am the biggest owner of the company but the four families, my mom and dad, my wife and I, my brother and his wife, and a very close family friend, we all put up the funds to do this. I did write a full business plan. We are an llc, it’s completely legit. We all consider ourselves investors. There is a pay-back schedule; there are responsibilities there that make this a true business and makes me watch the finances very closely. But I did not have to go through the pains of going to a bank to try and secure money for it.
So much of the wine business is payment up front…
BM Yes. Barrels, grapes, barrel racks, bins, the list goes on and on and on. Stainless steel kegs for our rosé… it keeps going and going. And I didn’t realize that there were that many costs involved. But we have some cool toys now! (laughs)
Where is the winery located?
BM The winery, so ‘08 was at Silenus Vintners, across Hwy 29 from Trefethen, right next to Laird; ‘09 is going to be at a brand new facility called JuiceBox, also in Napa. A new building, a beautiful place, everything is new. I think as of this date there are six wineries in there making wine. A cool facility.
Everybody I’m involved with, I’m close to in the last year doing this, most those people are moving over to JuiceBox as well. It’s a neat little community we have going on there.
Have you talked with distributors? Will your sales be subscription-based?
BM I have an allocation system I wrote. I’m in IT by trade so I created the website, I designed everything myself, and I’m writing the back end for it. Within that back end I’ve created an allocation system. We’re doing things a little different on the allocation system. You get points for being on the list per year, you get points for the amount of money you spend. But I wanted to be a little more viral so I came up something I’ve not seen anybody do: if you ask for Coleman Nicole in a restaurant let us know what restaurant you went into for dinner and asked. And we’ll give you some allocation points. If there is a Pinot Noir-only blog out there and you comment on a thread “Hey, has everybody tried Coleman Nicole?” Let us know. We’ll give you some allocation points. We really want to be viral. We want technology to work for us, like everybody else does. But it’s a cool way of getting the community out there and getting the name out there.
So, yes. It will be allocation-based only. And if we get to a point where we’ve got too much inventory then I’ll be footing to restaurants and boutique wine shops. I do not want my wine in Safeway or BelAir or grocery stores, at this point. I just don’t want that.
Are you looking into competitions?
BM No, I haven’t. But I will. I would love to be in Pinot Days next year. We’ll definitely submit for scores even though I’m not a big ’scores’ guy anymore. I used to be huge into scores but this journey has changed my perception on all that. But, yes, we’ll put it out in competitions. See what people think. I’m very realistic. Somebody’s going to absolutely love our Pinot and tell everybody about it, and somebody is going to hate our Pinot and tell everybody they hate it. That’s the name of the game in wine.
But I think if people realize the care we’re taking, and the hands-on approach we’re taking in every aspect, from hand-bottling, hand-labeling, hand wax dipping of the Rosé, people will look at that in an appreciative light. I would hope the judges at competitions read on our site the care we take. I don’t know. I’m very gray on that, if that’s even fair to say. A person’s palate shouldn’t judge a wine on the story of how the wine was made. A wine should be judged on how good the wine is. On the other hand, I do want people to know the care I take in the wine.
Have your children participated in the winemaking, the labeling?
BM They love it! My son, Davis Coleman Miller, is still a little young. He doesn’t quite understand the name on the bottle is him. He’s three. But my six year old Mattie, Madison Nicole Miller, she is very into hand-dipping the bottles with me. Yesterday she slapped a rosé label on her chest and slapped a label on her back and went up to grandpa and said “Look, Papa! I’m a good bottle of wine.” (laughs)
She’s very in tune to what we are doing. And I’m trying to train her on how she can maybe tell what wine is served by the shape of the bottle. I’m really trying to educate her on wine. And my son as well, when it’s time.
By the time my son was 16 he had tasted a couple dozen grower Champagnes. We went to France not too long ago. Outside Cahors, the wines from there I quite love, and again in Carcassonne, we would enter a cooperative, a tasting room and have two glasses put in front of us! Very civilized.
BM Because of the taboos surrounding alcohol in our society I think a lot of children are missing out on that artform. I really appreciate parents that do that with their children, to teach them about wine. It takes the bad mystique about alcohol away if it is part of the meal.
And if a young person develops an appreciation for wine how can they ever drink vodka?
BM Or swill! That’s how I was in college. I had a lot of friends who went through the micro-brew craze in the 90s. And I had my share. I enjoyed that hand-crafted beer aspect of things, but I was always much more into wine. My parents always had wine on the table. From the time I was about twelve years old, they always gave me a little, tiny glass of wine to enjoy with my meal. That’s all I got, and I knew it was something to be respected. I miss that in society. I miss seeing my friend’s parents being more open to teaching the art and craft of wine at earlier ages.
Wonderful speaking with you, Brandon. Thank you for the bottle of Rosé.
BM Thank you, Ken. My pleasure.
Admin
What follows is a transcription of a conversation between a winemaker and a visitor. The exchange took place at a new Santa Cruz Mountains winery just coming into its own, the family-owned Heart O’ The Mountain, located above the town of Scotts Valley, California. They produce Pinot Noir from 100% estate-grown fruit. The occasion of my visit was the Santa Cruz Mtns. Winegrower’s Vintner’s Festival, just completed this past weekend. I had been invited to the winery by Patti Bond of Bond Marketing & Communications for a possible interview with winegrower, Bob Brassfield. As luck would have it I was treated instead to the conversation below. Being a strong supporter of winery visitors asking questions, I was to enjoy the very thing.
For my part, I returned to the property a few days later for a full tour of the vineyards, including machinery and the all-important water supply, with Bob’s charming son, Brandon. That detailed conversation will be posted the week of the 21st.
One brief note I’ll write more about next week, the Heart O’ the Mountain winery is located on historically important acreage of an early Santa Cruz winery, Santa Sada, established roughly in 1887 by Pierre and Sada Cornwall.
Prohibition shut them down.
The winery’s website includes this remarkable passage from the pen of their son, Bruce Cornwall.
“In 1881 a redwood and manzanita covered piece of mountainous land, eighty-five acres in size, was acquired by my father in the Santa Cruz mountains. A cottage was built and regularly during the succeeding years Mr Cornwall, his wife and the writer sought this haven of rest and quiet, at first interested in clearing the land, then in planting the seeds and cuttings, and finally in gathering the fruit, crushing the grapes and making the wines from the same seeds and cuttings. Many and happy were the weekends there, enjoyed alone and with friends and relatives. Years of city business worry were thus relieved of their severity and their natural ravages assuaged.”
–Bruce Cornwall, from Life Sketch of Pierre Barlow Cornwall, San Francisco, 1906
I shall try to find more information about Santa Sada for a later post.
Now, the conversation…
Bob Brassfield Typically you don’t make wine out of your first grape harvest [2004] because the vine is young and it doesn’t produced its best fruit at that point. Typically you’d let the birds have it. But we were so excited to see grapes on a vine that we just went out and harvested it! We took them in and we made wine just to see what the end-product was. We passed it around to friends and other people that we knew, we were getting very positive feedback on it. So, I won’t precondition your thought process before you try it, before you’re afraid to say you don’t like it! (laughs)
We only made two barrels, fifty cases, from a single vineyard. Everything we do here is are own estate vineyards. We have 6 1/2 acres planted. If you’re familiar with the Pinot Noir clones, you know, there are over 1000 Pinot Noir clones; we have have five clones planted here. Four of them are Dijon clones from the Dijon region of Burgundy, and one of them is a Pommard from just south of Beaune. Our vines are actually heritaged from that Chateau Pommard estate. It’s been certified through the ENTAV certification process of France to be those vines.
The reason we planted Pommard and not all Dijon is that in the ’70s my wife and I and our young family at the time, we moved to Geneva, Switzerland. That is where we were first introduced to fine wine. Up until that point it was either red or white, the cheapest stuff you could find, right? (laughs). Over there we got a little bit of an education in wine. We went to our first tasting in Geneva. They had barges that they lined up and all the wineries came and they set up their tasting rooms on the barges. We tasted wine there. The one I gravitated to was a Pommard, a 1964 Pommard.
Now we fast forward to 2002 when we were getting ready to plant vineyards. And the person who was consulting with me what to plant, we settled on Pinot Noir, but now was time to choose clones. Everybody was sort of going toward Dijon clones in the last several years. I said at least give me a little Pommard for old time’s sake. And it’s turned out to be my favorite again!
Visitor How long is it from bud break to harvest?
Bob Brassfield Bud break is typically mid-March. We typically harvest somewhere beginning in September. It varies. This hillside right here, the 777 clone, that stuff buds out first if you were to go down and look closely at it you would see we already have berry-set on the hill. But out on the ridge and some other areas it is still flowering. We have the warm days but have the cool nights here.
Visitor How do you pick the clones you’re going to use? I don’t mean the basic clone but the individual type of that clone.
Bob Brassfield Well, we were kind of new to it so we went with the advice of people who were heavily into it at the time. And they advised us on the 667 clone, the 777 clone, and the Pommard, I’ve already told you that story. We chose those three. Since that time a relatively new clone has come into the winemaking arena here in California called 828. And so we grafted some Pinot Grigio. We’d decided we didn’t want to do white wine so we grafted that over to 828. And then out on the ridge, you see it way out there, our newest vineyard, is a 115. So we end up with 667, 777, 828, and 115.
There are a lot of other clones planted in California that are certified as being California clones. It’s not that they were genetically changed in a lab or anything. If you take a grape vine and plant it in certain environment, a certain terroir, over time it might …
Visitor … optimize itself for that area…
Bob Brassfield … start showing its own characteristics, flavor-wise. If it is distinctive enough they will certify it, UC Davis certifies…
Visitor UC Davis has a pretty good website. I was looking at it. I’m in Almaden Valley and I have this little piece of land, not very big. I could probably put three rows of something in.
Visitor’s Wife We have a backyard! (laughs)
Visitor I was thinking about putting in some wine grapes and just dabbling. I’m trying to figure out which ones. Pinot Noir appeals to me but I think it might be too warm out there.
Bob Brassfield You’re in Almaden Valley? I would suspect so. You might be better off to go toward a Syrah or one of the warmer climate grapes.
Visitor I was reading on the Davis website that Pinot Noir seems very finicky. I mean you’ve got problems with keeping all of the stuff off of it, all of the different kinds of diseases.
Bob Brassfield Yeah. You have to treat it real delicate. It’s all hand harvested. We don’t pump, it’s all gravity flow, we don’t filter. We do a cold soaking process in order to get the flavors and aromas out of Pinot Noir. It’s difficult to get it out of the skin.
We harvest each clone separately because they ripen at different times. We bring them in separately, we cold-soak them separately, we warm them up and ferment them separately. And then when we press we go into barrels, 100% French oak.
Visitor All new?
Bob Brassfield No, not all new. The single barrels that we do, the twenty and twenty-five case, that we do in new French oak. But we’re about 50/50 overall. If you’re not careful you can put too much oak on Pinot Noir and destroy the fruit, the fruitiness of it. Tight grain, by the way. Then it’s aged for about 18 months, not all on the new oak for 18 months; we’ll pull it off maybe after 12 months or so, and put it on a neutral oak.
Sometimes we’ll fall in love with a barrel for some reason, we don’t know why. But a barrel will just jump out at you. We will then bottle it by itself.
Well, we better get you two going on the 2006!
______
And so the exchange continued. I wandered off with Ms. Bond to explore the grounds of the Brassfield’s estate, an estate formerly owner by Alfred Hitchcock. But that is another story.
Admin
As returning readers of this blog well know I am a tireless enthusiast for the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. I feel it has enormous unrealized potential, this despite fistfuls of awards won by its wines over the years. What is missing is greater national recognition. A stronger effort must be made by winegrowers, through their modest collective instruments of publicity and marketing, to better promote the unique qualities of the region. Terroir means something here. Creative indifference to both fashion and the latest technological innovation is the rule. A barn not a faux chateau is the dominant architectural form. If you like your wine spiked with masking oak, look elsewhere. The preference is for structured, balanced wines, approachable in their youth but, like the winemakers here, in it for the long haul. Indeed, the continuity of the AVAs wine history is unmistakable.
After I had finished my interview with Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard (pt.1, pt.2, and pt.3) and was preparing to leave he volunteered the following meditation on the origins of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.
Jeff Emery The Santa Cruz Mountains (SCM) AVA is unique in a number of ways. It was the first American Viticultural Area whose criteria was based entirely on geographical and climatological considerations. All the appellations up to that point were generally political boundaries. For instance, Napa Valley. To say Napa Valley on a wine label, on a bottle, you only have to be within Napa county. It is actually somewhat meaningless in terms of climate, soils and geography. Whereas in Europe those things are very strictly controlled based on where you are, that type of thing.
What ended up becoming the Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Growers Association, through a number of different changes, was a group of what was being called the new renaissance of winemakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the late ’60s early 70’s. They would get together for these monthly or quarterly pot lucks and discuss the criteria to submit to the government for establishing the SCM AVA.
The main players felt strongly that appellations needed to mean more than they had previously in the US. Appellations here were kind of a farce, a straw version of what they were in Europe. They really needed to have reasons why. The main people involved in that push were David Bennion of Ridge, Ken Burnap of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, Val and Dexter Ahlgren of Ahlgren Vineyard, Bob Mullen of Woodside Vineyards, and I’m sure I’m going to miss some people…, Jan and Nat Sherrill of an outfit called Sherrill Cellars, long gone now; so this core group of people, we would get together and meet. I was a teenager when I came to this group in the late ’70s. The main focus was developing this AVA criteria. We had endless meetings about what to do with vineyards such as Bates Ranch which has an upper portion and a lower portion, and the lower portion would have been kicked out of the appellation based on the criteria that the upper was in. So a little gerrymander was made for that one….
In short, the boundary is much more complicated than this but generally the West side of the Santa Cruz Mountains the elevation has to be above 400 feet with the idea being that if it is below 400 feet it would be too cold for quality grape growing. And on the East side of the mountain range the vineyards have to be above 800 feet, the idea being that below 800 feet it is too hot for quality grape growing. There are a whole bunch of exceptions to that but, by and large that’s the deal. So when you look at a map of the SCM AVA it’s this incredibly squiggly line because it follows the contour lines. The most arbitrary limits, perhaps, are the northern terminus at Hwy 92 [Half Moon Bay] and Hwy 152 in the south [Watsonville].
So this group got together to establish this. The appellation was approved in 1981 by the TTB or what was called the ATF at the time. Now, they’d gotten used to meeting together and had, in and amongst establishing the appellation criteria, they had also done some marketing things and some tastings here and there, done some collective efforts like that, so it just naturally evolved into a marketing group for the Santa Cruz Mountains. Then, I’m sketchy on the dates, a group of folks started a Santa Cruz County group that was much more marketing-based than the Santa Cruz Mountains group, and it was sort of a sub-group. But as time went on they became more and more similar, in fact, a whole bunch of us, about half the membership, were in both. And it was decided that it was redundant and silly to have these two organizations duplicating efforts. The two organizations were merged, that was at the time the Santa Cruz County Winegrowers Association and the Santa Cruz Mountains Vintners. They became the present-day Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association (SCMWA). I was president of the board at the time when that happened, so you’d think I would know when that was but I cannot recall off the top of my head! I was chosen primarily because I was in both organizations and they wanted someone to sort of unify the groups and get it together.
Now we’re an organization [SCMWA] of over 70 member wineries from around a dozen in those days. We don’t do potlucks in people’s homes because there are too many of us! But we still do meet at least twice a year.
The SCM AVA does have one sub-appellation…
JE Yes.
In a conversation I had with Bob Mullen he was quite opposed to any further sub-appellations.
JE Interesting…
He believes it would dilute the branding. On the other hand there are so many microclimates…
JE I don’t know that sub-appellations dilute appellations. I mean, does a vineyard designation dilute the Gevry-Chambertin AOC in Burgundy? It’s a difficult question because it is such a broad appellation, certainly in terms of microclimates. And there is not just a single varietal that says this is what’s grown here. So it’s very hard for the consumer to get a handle on what Santa Cruz Mountains is. This is what the SCMWA has been struggling with for decades as far as what is the AVA’s identity. To an extent I could make a case for sub-appellations as helping with that. But I also don’t know that it needs to be that specifically legal called out. When you get into an application for an AVA you going to have to spell out the exact boundary. It’s like a property line deed. And we all know that applying such rigid, objective things to such a subjective, organic process like growing grapes is never going to be perfect. What I’ve heard proposed more recently that I think is a good way to do it, and to an extent winegrowers have started to promote it this way, is to talk about the different districts within the appellation, and their different characteristics. The wine group that has done a very good job of doing that is Appellation America which is an on-line presence that looks at and judges wines in the context of their given appellation, tries to pick out the different styles and then the sub-regions within that. They just did a whole thing on Pinot Noir…
Yes. Clark Smith and Laura Ness wrote a wonderful series…
JE Right. They developed these different regions like Corralitos and what they’re calling in our old area, the Vine Hill area, Los Ranchos, the Summit area, Skyline… so you can do these different plots and regions, and I would say you could do that in general with the Woodside, the Saratoga, the Corralitos…
Without a formal sub AVA…
JE Yes, without formal subs and formal boundaries because in many cases, within a given varietal, I think you could argue those boundaries would shift with what variety you’re growing, its requirements, heat, exposure, etc. It’s become so cumbersome to do applications for AVAs now that I think it’s probably more trouble than it’s worth. In fact the Feds are talking about throwing out the whole process entirely.
Paso Robles has been involved in quite a long fight over their proposal…
JE Yes, because they are trying to do lots of sub-appellations. We had a big fight years ago when the San Francisco Bay appellation was proposed. That was a situation of applying a bigger, broader based thing on top of an existing smaller one, in this case the Santa Cruz Mountains. The group actually fought pretty hard against the San Francisco Bay. We felt it was pretty meaningless. The Bay is a huge, diverse bunch of microclimates. It was mostly proposed, in our opinion, as a marketing tool for people that distributed world-wide because nobody knew where things were if you didn’t tie it to San Francisco Bay. And in the end the winegrowers group met and came up with the official policy by voting, and it was by no means unanimous, there was a lot of contention about whether it was a good idea, but the great majority thought it was a bad idea.
To my knowledge Santa Cruz Mountains is the only exception in the American Viticultural code wherein a smaller appellation within a bigger one is nevertheless exempt from it. In other words, the Santa Cruz Mountains said, “We do not want to be called San Francisco Bay”. Normally in that case if you were in the small one and the big one you could choose which you wanted on your labels. So, for instance, if you were in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA under the normal circumstances if you wanted to say [on your label] San Francisco Bay you could. In our case we said we never want to do that because it is ridiculous and meaningless. Santa Cruz is not part of the San Francisco Bay appellation, which did get approved. But we are carved out of the middle of it.
And if you’re below the 400 foot elevation on the western side?
JE Well, you can always call yourself by a county, Santa Cruz County, Santa Clara County, San Mateo, Monterey, or you could do San Francisco Bay were you located in the first three counties. Or Central Coast.
Thank you for your insight, Jeff.
JE You’re welcome, Ken.
Admin
November 30th is the 2009 Rossi Prize scholarship application deadline for graduating Napa Country high school students pursuing a degree in viticulture and enology at UC Davis. (PDF link here.) The $20,000 Rossi Prize was established in 1979
“ in order to benefit viticulture and enology students from the Napa Valley, and to honor the memories of their late parents and brother. The Rossi family has been involved in grapegrowing and winemaking since the early 20th century and has been an integral part of the agricultural history of the Napa Valley.”
The Rossi’s have a very distinguished viticultural history in the Napa Valley and with UC Davis. Their generosity is legendary. It was in late 2007 that Napa valley native Louise Rossi’s estate donated 12.7 million dollars to the University. The full details may be read here.
With a less pressing deadline of April 3rd, 2009, the California Association of Wine Grape Growers, through their affiliate, the California Wine Grape Growers Foundation, offers qualifying high schoolers the following:
“Up to two scholarships being offered each provide $1,000 per year for four years (provided studies continue to be completed satisfactorily) at any campus in the University of California or California State University system. Another four scholarships each provide $500 a year for two years at any California community college.”
However, the scholarships offer comes with a praiseworthy, culturally significant requirement. (application PDF here.)
“Only the children of vineyard workers employed in the 2008 or 2009 winegrape growing season are eligible to apply. However, children of wine grape growers may request a waiver from the eligibility requirement based upon financial need.”
The Foundation also offers the Robert Miller Scholarship for Viticulture and Enology. This is a more general prize for viticulture and enology students on the Central Coast planning to attend either the Alan Hancock Community College or CalPoly. (application PDF here)
Cal State Fresno also offers significant wine ag scholarship awards, but I found their portal difficult to research. However, interested parents and students will find a way!
I will locate other Cal. enology and viticulture scholarships for another post soon. Anyone with relevant info is invited to write Reign of Terroir with details.
Admin
Reign of Terroir is pleased to introduce a new series, Young Winemakers. The effort will be to interview up and coming winemakers, our next generation of creative producers.
First up is Denis Hoey, 25, owner and winemaker at Dragonfly Cellars located among the Surf City Vintners group here in Santa Cruz, California. Denis graduated from UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Economics and Business Management. During his last year at the university he met Jeff Emory, the highly regarded owner and winemaker of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard who graciously took him under his wing.
The rest is history.
I caught up with Denis at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard’s winery where Dragonfly shares space.
Admin Tell us how you began making wine?
Denis Hoey I began at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard. I was introduced by one of my teachers at UCSC to Jeff Emory, and he gave me the opportunity to come in and learn, the old apprenticeship style. And I continue to work at Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard to this day. From there is was exploring the UC Davis library, reading year in and year out until I felt like I was ready I started Dragonfly Cellars.
I studied very, very hard about an individual grape variety, Durif, found about its origins, how it’s been treated in the past, what has worked, what hasn’t worked. I pieced together a bunch of different winemaker’s methods so as to create my own. That’s the origin of my winemaking.
Are there other grapes besides Durif that interest you?
DH Durif is one of my main focuses. I’m trying to do mostly Santa Cruz Durif. I think it is a wonderful grape that can grow well here. It has a tremendous expression of smoke, spice, and beautiful flavors that is brought out here in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA. So I’m working very closely with some growers who are just getting some vineyards online. And that’s going to be my main focus. However, I also like to play with Cabernet vineyards. The last few years have been fun. I don’t ever have a contract, it’s just through my friends I get a great vineyard source and I make great Cabernet from them. One vineyard source one year and one vineyard source another year, and that’s been a fun thing. So I’m kind of getting back into the traditional bit with the Cabernet. I also have the opportunity to work with alot of Santa Cruz Mountains [AVA] Pinot seeing that I work for Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, so I’m also making a Santa Cruz Mountains [AVA] Pinot blend. I working with Pinot, Cabernet and Malbec.
Speaking of smoke I’ve heard reports of smoke from this year’s summer fires affecting some vineyards in Northern Napa and Mendocino. Have you detected it in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA where we too had a number of fires?
DH I have not noticed anything as of yet from my vineyards. I could very rarely, if ever, smell the fires from my vineyards or seen any ash in my vineyards. So, therefore, I haven’t seen any problems for myself. I know of alot of vineyards that were very close to the fires where that could be an issue.
And the sources of your fruit, are they from all over Cali?
DH Yes, but as of 2007 I will be about 75% Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.
Your case production?
DH Case production as of this year will be 600 cases, so very, very small. We started with 65 cases, went up to 100, went up to 350 (laughter), and now were up to 600! So were growing about 100 per cent every year. There’s been a wonderful response and make me feel, like, “Ok, I should be making more wine!”
You hear various reports about the quality of this year’s crop, that there is a reduction overall and some quality issues. How would you estimate the quality of the grapes you’ve seen pass through your doors?
DH The grapes that first appeared, I was highly skeptical because they were coming in so fast and so early. But the flavors that I’m getting from the finished wines that are now in barrel are wonderful. I didn’t feel as though I had as much control this year due to the heat because you can only pick one or two vineyards a day. And when they’re all coming in in a three or four day period, you know, some of them get away from you, from optimal. But on the whole I’m enjoying the flavors. The yields have been very, very low. Alot of our vineyards are coming in 50 to 60 percent low. That’s a big hit to a winery. I know I would have produced alot more wine this year had some of the vineyards I was working with hadn’t come in so shy.
But as far as the quality of the fruit, I think the quality has been quite good from the vineyards we’re getting from. From year to year I’ve been noticing that guys right next door can have a bad year just due to the microclimate not only in Santa Cruz but in other appellations. I’ve worked with two different vineyards and have enjoyed the fruit out of one but not the other. They shared the same growing techniques but it was just the different microclimate.
That is one of the strenghts of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA.
DH I think so.
Here in the winery would you tell us a little about your barrel regimen?
DH I had the privilege of working in a brewery for about a year and a half. My brother is a brewer. And when I was commuting back and forth, my fiancé at the time, now my wife, was going to school up in San Rafael, I needed to get a job where I could work part time for Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard and also work up there. So I got a job at Bison Brewing. I learned breweries have to be alot cleaner than wineries have to be. Wineries produce more of a stable product. But in breweries you’re constantly fighting microbiological warfare due to the nature of beer. Beer is prone to infection. No pathogens can live in alcohol. By infection I mean producing off-flavors, you know, basically ruining what you’re trying to create. I translated that experience to the winery. So I work under brewery’s regime of cleanliness. I sanitize everything; no water rinses. It is always organically sanitized and neutralized. Nothing touches the wine that hasn’t been cleaned.
There’s a saying in the industry that brewers are neat and tidy, wineries are a little messier, and distilleries are disgusting! Because nothing can live in high proof alcohol. Distillers don’t have to worry about infection or things like that. That’s the pecking order of who’s more stable.
But to get back to the point, the wines I work tirelessly to have clean…, clean, perfect wines going into the bottle. So I can’t look back and look at myself and say, “God, I messed that one up”.
We have about 300 barrels in the winery. My regime is to top routinely, clean each bung because that is a major source of infection, and to taste every barrel at least every one to two months. Otherwise your barrel can start to have its own micro issue that you can nip in the bud. If you’re tasting often and you know you might have a problem, you can fix it before it becomes a problem.
How did you come up with your beautiful label illustrations?
DH I bumped into a nice lady by the name of Gilli Wolf, she is my graphic designer. She just came up to the table and said she wanted to design a wine label and I said, “You’re in luck. I need a wine label designed”. So I sent her a scrap that I knew I wanted the feel of the label to be. I told her it’s Dragonfly Cellars, I’d like Celtic knots in the wings, make it look a little nouveau. She took it from there and knocked it out of the park in the first two or three tries.
That’s for sure! I love the label.
DH I am really happy and blessed with the label. It really all came together.
The origin of the name of the winery is my wife and I were sitting in a field at a brew festival with my brother. We were wondering what we were going to call the winery. There were thousands of dragonflies flying all around us in this field. I said, “Dragonfly Cellars!” But then I said, no, somebody will have that name. I went researching and found nobody really had that name. So I threw it through the TTB, it got approved, got my bond, started the winery. Now it’s all trademarked. Its been a wonderful growth and we’re blessed even to have the name.
Plans for the future?
DH I plan to hopefully stay at an 800 case level. I’ve got a preview program that’s slowly growing. I’ve got a whoppin’ 35 members! We’re still in our infancy stage. What I’m working on is working with organic growers for the vineyards I work on personally and farm myself, on sustainability, towards doing the majority of my winemaking from grapes of the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, just trying to work local and as green as possible. In the wine industry we have to use certain things like sulphur just because that is a tried and true method to produce quality wine. At least from my research thus far. I’m always open to having my mind changed!
But for the future, I want to create very balanced wines. My wines are all about balance, all about accessibility; they’re wines that I design where people can come to the winery, buy a bottle of wine, and go home and drink it. But you can also age it for 5 or 6 years, which is good for people who have cellars. That’s what I do! So I’m trying to play on both ends instead of having these hard lines where people come in and taste it and go, “Umm, I don’t like it right now.” I want them to come in and say, “Wow, this is balanced; this has everything I want now. I can only imagine what it’s going to be in 5 years.”
That’s the ultimate goal.
It’s just my wife Claire and myself. We do everything, everything there is to do at Dragonfly. We have no employees. It is just us.
Absolutely delightful. Thank you very much, Denis.
DH Thank you.
Admin
Jonathan Nossiter’s Mondovino, The Series, is a revelation from beginning to end. On four dvds, ten one-hour episodes, not only does it build upon themes pursued in the original 2004 theatrical release, but it substantially deepens them as well. For those who have only seen the original, they will be greatly rewarded by viewing the enormous amount of material that had to be set aside to fashion a marketable film. For those who come to Mondovino, The Series fresh, they are in for a hilarious, educational ride.
1) Where’s Asterix? (or Little Town, Big Hell)
Interestingly, the more the ‘players’ in this episode speak, the more nuanced do their positions become. A viewer upon finishing this first chapter comes away with a far greater appreciation of the multiple meanings, as much personal and political, of the battle to save the forest. There is as much bad faith as honesty, as much cowardice as courage. No political position is as it seems. It is in this discordance that comedy reigns surpreme.
2) Magic Potion
Of the Montille children, truly remarkable new footage is included. Our understanding of Alix and Etienne is improved, both fascinating people. We follow a harvest with the workers grumbling over labor issues and the family’s response. Greek and Libyan students on break from the University of London stir up trouble but are seemingly placated by a fabulous lunch prepared by Christine. Great exchanges are enjoyed throughout!
3) Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
There is much else that is commendable but I cannot resist mentioning Bill Harlan’s reply to Mr. Nossiter’s question, “Does Napa have an identity?” Mr. Harlan replies, “To me the Napa Valley is kind of as it’s always been. It’s been in transition of becoming what it will be in another 100 years.” No post-modernist academic (or Stephen Colbert, for that matter) could have uttered a more confounding sentence. A pitch-perfect summation of episode 3.
4) Pax Panoramix
The viewer might be wondering what is left to prove generally about the globalization of a limited wine style having heard multiple voices either pointing to or demonstrating the affirmative. And yet we are only four episodes into The Series. Previously critics have laid the blame for the argument forcefully made in the theatrical version of Mondovino at Mr. Nossiter’s feet. It was his selective editing that was to blame. That argument can no longer be sustained. And with episode 5 the beat goes on. But a more aggressively drawn contrast begins to emerge. Here is considered the influence of Robert Parker. From Rolland to garagiste Jean-Luc Thunevin of Chateau Valandraud in St. Émilion, from a visit to Leo McCloskey of Enologix, the largest wine consulting firm in the US, to Parker himself, it is in this episode where the rubber meets the road. I defy anyone to sit through Mr. Parker’s greatly expanded comments on his own influence, on pricing, terroir, his indifference to history and not come away astonished at his arrogance. Michel Rolland, as well. And a new, fresh voice is heard here, Catherine Montalbetti, the editor of the Hachette Wine Guide. She speaks well of the standardization of taste. And she goes on to say, “Because no way can you tell whether it comes from California, Chile, Bordeaux or Languedoc.”
6) Quo Vademus?
7) All Roads Lead to Rome
We next meet Scott Harvey, winemaker for Folie à Deux. That winery was named after the founders’ madness of the same name: the condition of two closely related people sharing the same delusional idea, in this case, of starting a winery. But perhaps the most interesting moments of this episode belong to Jean-Charles Boisset, Director of the Boisett Group, #1 in Burgundy sales. I shall not soon forget his unique method pf punching down the cap! Or his plan to produce a limited edition of a super-blend of wines from diverse Boisset holdings, a wine with no origins, possessing neither Mother nor Father, neither terroir nor authorship. The episode closes on a very painful recollection by Bernard Magrez. It seems his father used to pin a very public sign on his back reading ‘I am a lazy boy’ when he was a child. As he says, “If you’ve lived through that it is much harder to love anyone”.
8 ) Crossing the Rubicon
10) Veni, vidi, vendidi (I came, I saw, I sold)
