I am fond of the opening scene in the wine documentary MONDOVINO, of a few years back. An old gentleman is being interviewed in his vineyard in Sardinia. He looks toward the camera and says something like this. “My name is Giuseppe and this is my vineyard. This vineyard has been in my family for four generations. From my vineyards, I make my wine. Some people think it is too acetic. I don’t”. He is saying that his wines are an individual expression of his vineyards and his personal approach to winemaking. I fully agree with this proposition. A wine should have a sense of place and person. It is unique to the growing conditions of a specific location and the stylistic expression of a winemaker.
When I first got into the wine business some thirty years ago, I headed directly to the mountains of the Napa Valley. As a consumer, I had developed a love for the intensity, structure and depth of flavors of Cabernet Sauvignon from these higher reaches of the Valley's great mountain ranges. However at that time, mountain Cabernets had such aggressive tannins that they almost had to carry a consumer warning about all of the bad things that were going to happen to you if you dared to drink the wine before it had aged for 20 years!
My personal objective has been to infuse mountain Cabs with riper and rounder tannins that integrate with the fruit and provide a smoother texture in the wines. This allows our Cabs to be enjoyed over their entire life with the sound potential for aging in the 20+ year range. Wines with structure, polish and balance - that has been the "Craig" style, from the beginning of our winemaking in 1992 to today.
Each of our four Cabs from Napa Valley is an individual expression of the soils and micro-climates of the vineyards where the grapes are grown. The difference in the flavor profile of each wine is quite mind-bending when you consider that the winemaking techniques are the same for all.
Our goal is to craft Cabernets that are truly unique, rather than attempting to make formulaic wines that some influential critic might like. The "mondovino" vision of a global wine style without personality or distinctiveness will, I trust, never be realized as long as there are individualists making wine their own way and consumers who are open to all the wonderful possibilities.
Enjoy in good health!
Bob Craig
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