Community Tasting Note

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Saturday, July 27, 2013 - Brought to a 1 star Michelin Restaurant for a full course dinner. Main Course: Ox tail in a red wine sauce.
The wine was purchased at the winery in the early 90s and had been stored in perfect cellaring conditions (11 Celcius, 70% humidity) in a EuroCave.

The cork looked and felt like new. Only a slight colouring at the edge of the cork and no streaks whatsoever. A great start!

My first impression on looking in the glass was "wow". The wine was a dark red colour with only very slight showing of ageing on the rim. On the nose the prominent aroma of cassis was solid. Beautiful floral scents of rose petals with an earthiness of forest floor. In the mouth the wine was well balanced. Good texture with flavours of red fruit and cassis dominating. Oak was well integrated giving the wine a lovely texture. The finish was fair. A great new world wine at its peak in my opinion that has impressed me greatly.

The Robert Mondavi Winery has made great contributions to the wine industry and has had a great influence on my love of wine (not to mention adding to my dining experience). I met Mr. Robert Mondavi a few years prior to his passing away and this wine brought back memories of my early days of visiting the tasting room at the winery. I recall on the one occasion that I was invited to meet Mr. Robert Mondavi in 2006 just two years prior to his death. There was a small group of us tasting wine when Mr. Mondavi was escorted in by staff. He only stayed a few minutes but the event had a immense impact on me. Mr. Mondavi shook hands with each of us and told me that he remembered me from previous years. When he approached the only female in the group, rather than shake hands he told her "now young lady how about you give me a little kiss". As she kissed him on the cheek he turned to me with a wink and smile and said "look and learn young man". We all laughed and the young lady replied "Oh Mr. Mondavi, the joy was all mine". There was an emotional element of my tasting of this wine which may have been a bias in my review.

I have attached a photo of the wine with the ox tail dinner.

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