Mondavi CheninBlanc '67??

I've been reading RobertMondavi's "Harvest of Joy" autobiography.
Decent enough read, but he seems pretty full of himself and his accomplishments in a rather contrived self-deprecating manner.
Anyway, I came across a point ystrday that I'd never heard of before. He claims that in the rain-besotted 1967 vintage, he came upon the noble rot/edelfaule growing on his CheninBlanc in the vnyd. He claims, more or less, to being the discoverer of natural botrytis in Calif...a story I'd not heard before.
Anybody ever heard anything of this story or know anything about that '67 CheninBlanc?
Tom

Check those boxes in your garage that you forgot about for 15 years. There's proabably a bottle of it there.

Check those boxes in your garage that you forgot about for 15 years. There's proabably a bottle of it there.

Touche, Tom!!!
Tom

that was 5 years before I even got into the business, so I'm no help, but I know of a story that in '72, with all the rain that Fall, that a lot of Riesling growers were aghast at all the mold on their grapes, but Tschelitschieff took a look, and said (more or less) "Bring it on!!!" (as did Mike Grgich, John Henderson, and a few other folks).

I don’t know Tom, the vintage year of 1967 was the first times “conditions” were favorable for “Noble Rot”? Sounds a little to late IMHO. For the mold to produce “Noble Rot” very specific conditions most prevail (the timing of the infestation is important, and conditions for the mold to grow and spread has to be favorable (moist conditions), when the infested ripe berries start to loss water (dry out) drier conditions are favorable. If moist conditions prevail during water loss (drying out) “Gray Rot” could take hold. (In the fifties Beringer (Nightingale) was producing a “desert wine” using “Noble Rot” under “laboratory conditions”. Some people knew what to look for before 1967.)

Salute