This was brought last night as a mystery wine. It shoulda stayed at home:
1. OneHope PinotNoir Reserve EdnaVlly (Winemaker: Rob Mondavi Jr.; "Half the profits donated to help fight heart disease"; 14.3%; ; www.OneHopeWine.com; "Ripe black cherry/cola/opulent/Vanilla") SanLuisObispo 2012: Light color; slight piney/eucalyptus/Christmas tree light pencilly/toasty/oak light cherry/earthy rather simple/pleasant/confected nose; soft ripe/grapey light cherry/PN/earthy light toasty/oak simple/confected flavor w/ no tannins; med.short light cherry/PN/earthy light pencilly/oak simple/grapey finish w/ no tannins; this is how FredFranzia would make EdnaVlly Pinot if he could; a simple/confected/washed-out rendition of Pinot that's dull as dishwater; grossly overpriced at $24.00
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. OneHope: This is apparently a winery located in Rutherford/NapaVlly. They do not yet have a wnry or tasting room, but apparently own a vnyd. They (supposedly) donate a part of their profits to various charities thru the OneHope Foundation. Rob Mondavi Jr. is their winemaker and a partner since 2010. This is a new one for me. This btl was gifted to Chris by one of the partners. Not too inclined to try any of their other wines.
Their WebSite: OneHopeWine
is interesting in that the AboutUs page shows this vast organization...yet nary a mention of a winermaker or production personnel.
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2. RobertMondavi: This is the 50'th anniversary of the founding of RobertMondaviWnry. Been seeing a lot of press about it. SteveHeimhoff had a blog entry ystrday praising to the skies RobertMondavi and pointing out how this event launched the "botique" wine movement in Calif. It is, to me, more than a bit tiresome.
To tell the truth, RobertMondavi has had virtually zero impact on my wine hobby. I never met the guy...so obviously never been charmed by his personal charisma. When I was getting interested in wine in the late-'60's; the RobertMondavi wines were touted as the creme de la creme of Calif. I tried a number of them and was never very thrilled. Over the yrs, I try them intermittenly and find them rather charmless and soulless. Even the iconic Cabernets (must admit I'm not much of a fan of NapaVlly Cabernet), even w/ some age on them, have never seemed very thrilling. The Cabs from sons Michael and Tim, the few I've had the opportunity to try, seem to be cut from the same cloth. There have been a few that I've genuinely liked...Moscato d'Oro and Botrytis SauvBlanc. But the rest of them leave me cold.
So...what am I missing here?? Why don't I stand in awe and worship at the feet of the late RobertMondavi like the rest of the wine community? Why don't the Mondavi wines make the Earth move for me?? Please point out the error in my ways...I want to be edumacated!!!
Tom
I've only had a couple middle-upper end ones which I did enjoy. More than his other vanity project, Opus One, which as a young wine seemed pretty insipid to me??????