Robert Mondavi "Maestro" Red Blend 2014
(Napa Valley, California) - [TP 94]

Harvested into small bins and carefully sorted in our gravity-flow cellar. The clusters were gently destemmed directly into traditional French oak tanks for cold soak, fermentation and extended maceration – a total of 24 days of wine to skin contact – maximizing the extraction of varietal character and complexity while keeping the tannins fleshy and supple. The new wine was drained and gently pressed into 28% new French-oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, assuring seamless integration of fruit and oak. The final blend was assembled through repeated tasting trials over the 21 months of barrel aging.
94 Points - Tasting Panel:
"Named for the opening of Robert Mondavi's To Kalon Cellar in 2000, when the man himself threw a huge "cellar-bration" featuring a commissioned chamber-orchestra piece aptly named "Ode to To Kalon." It was there that Mr. Mondavi leapt to his feet to lead the music. As a tribute to the pioneering Maestro of Napa Valley's success, this wine-a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Cabernet Franc and 2% each of Merlot and Petit Verdot-offers up a meaty nose of deep, dark chocolate-covered strawberries. Flavors of tobacco, soil, slate, tar and olives go long on gritty tannins, and with a wave of the baton, it finishes on a high note of lilacs and caramel-coated coffee bean."

Wine Enthusiast Magazine:
"Made from four Bordeaux red varieties, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, this full-bodied wine is chalky in big-boned tannin and woody oak. Green olive, sagebrush and graphite accent blackberry and black cherry, with a rounded finish."