Just a little history... When Robert Mondavi opened his new winery in the 1960's. he wanted to do whatever was possible to create very high quality wines in the Napa Valley. He was something of an experimenter, and brought new techniques and methods to his winery that were non-traditional and, some thought, pretty radical! As an example, Mondavi introduced stainless-steel fermentation tanks, with water-cooled jackets so that he could precisely control the temperature of the wine during fermentation. His winery was ultra-modern, and highly automated.

Over the years, Mr. Mondavi's son Tim took over responsibility for winemaking, and he too is something of an experimenter. In 2002, the Mondavis undertook yet another radical revamping of their winemaking process. They added a whole new wing to the building, dedicated to making red wines... in a VERY traditional way! Gone are the highly automated processes, gone are the stainless-steel tanks! Replaced with very simple, gentle, traditional methods and equipment... The Mondavis purchased 56 new French oak fermentation vats.

Now, grapes are brought into the winery in small baskets, gently crushed, and the juice flows by gravity right into the vat.