Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/63248
Photo: Rocco Ceselin Peter Mondavi Sr. At 97, the Vintners Hall of Famer still goes to work at Charles Krug every day he four th chi ld of Italian immigrants, Peter Mondavi Sr., 97, spent summers in Lodi packing 30-pound bins of zinfandel grapes alongside his brother Robert, helping their father make homemade wine. The family later moved to the Napa Valley, buying the fabled Charles Krug Winery in 1943. After graduating from Stanford Univer- sity and a stint in the United States Army Chemical Corps during World War II, Peter was appointed head of production. Mondavi is credited with some of the most important innovations in the California wine industry dur- ing his multiple decades at work, achievements recently recognized 82 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT MAY - JUNE 2012 by the Vintners Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted on Feb. 20. These achievements include Mondavi's experimental work with cold fermentation and the use of French oak barrels. He was also the first to install glass-lined steel tanks, as well as an early advocate of centrifuges and the fermenting of chardonnay in oak. While he still shows up to work every day, the bulk of the fam- ily's wine operations are now the responsibility of Mondavi's two sons, Marc and Peter Jr., who over- see the production of some 65,000 cases a year under the Charles Krug/Peter Mondavi Family name and 1 million more under CK Mon- davi, in addition to farming approxi- mately 850 acres in Napa Valley. We visited Mondavi at the Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena to talk about the past, present and future of Napa Valley wine. Vineyard & Winery Manage- ment (V&WM): As a man who's been a Napa Valley vintner for more than 60 years, what changes have you seen in the way wine is made? Peter Mondavi (PM): The big change has been this thinning of the vines, of the crop, and getting high alcohol. New rootstock and new this and new that, and in the meantime, we've learned so much more about soil. In those early days we'd buy property not thinking about it. Today, you want to make damn sure about the soil quality. V&WM: What do you think of WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM