02/04/2016

Made with Bordeaux varieties and cut from Californian cloth, Continuum is a handsome wine.

continuum-english-nose

This well dressed wine comes from Sage Mountain. Not heard of it? Well it’s not an AVA yet, but Tim Mondavi hopes some day soon it will make the grade. Ten years ago Tim and sister Marcia went looking for a niche terroir to make a wine to rival First Growth Bordeaux. I am told it was accident, rather than design, which brought them to a spot in Napa above the family’s former winery in Oakville and the vineyard of To Kalon (think Opus One)… a continuous line no less, although the Continuum Estate vineyards are on a hill – that of Pritchard.

Viticulture is not new up here. German immigrants first planted these slopes, but few vineyards survived prohibition, phylloxera and the depression. It was cheaper and more productive to cultivate the fertile valley floor, so the vineyards of Oakville burgeoned, while the slopes were neglected.

This sophisticated hillside wine has a sterner upbringing than those on the valley floor. The vines struggle in the shallow, iron rich, grey stone soil which oxidises to a rust coloured powder. It yields little crop. I admire the fulsome use of Bordeaux varieties here. The heart of the blend is Cabernet Sauvignon, but with a decent proportion of Cabernet Franc. Now this variety is not to everyone’s taste. It can be herbaceous and needs time to ripen, but the season is a bit longer at 1300-1600 ft than on the valley floor which gives it a fighting chance. I tasted samples from two different parcels, one too green, but the other, from a warm south facing slope, was fragrant on the nose, aromatic and silky on the palate with an appetising minty note. (I find a minty note contributes to a sense of freshness, used to good effect in some of my favourite Burgundy, in that case drawn from ripe stalks). We also tasted a burly, muscular Petit Verdot, which Tim describes as “vulgar in youth, but develops from an ugly duckling into a swan” and a gentle Merlot. The blend is drawn from different blocks, not always the same or in the same proportion. In fact it was not until the 2013 vintage that Continuum was made entirely from the estate vineyards on Pritchard Hill and vinified there.

sage-mountain

On this point it’s vinified in oak and in cement (the latter to retain the aromatics) and sits on the skins for a lengthy post ferment, “for more developed characters.” Tim Mondavi describes the ageing in barrel as “more like white Burgundy. We take a lot of the lees and we stir them.” It’s racked infrequently and has no fining or filtration. The family have Italian ancestry and maybe this is why they often reference the old world – certainly Burgundy and Bordeaux.

The Mondavi family saga has been performed on a very public stage, but the fisticuffs and fur coats, the dynastic power struggles and personality clashes have been consigned to the past. I sense a sadness and regret in Tim, wonderful vineyards have been lost, but this wine seems to embody something tranquil, a moving on. The 2013 vintage celebrates Tim’s four decades of winemaking and the one hundred year anniversary of Robert Mondavi’s birth. When Tim Mondavi and his daughter Carissa presented the 2013 in London there was a sense that this is the time for the next generation.

Some may criticise Continuum for being yet another international style Bordeaux blend. But it’s more than that, for it has a sense of place. Grape varieties in classic regions such as Bordeaux or Barolo have found their niche over centuries of viticulture, while in the new world winemakers experiment with grape varieties to find which best express their specific set of conditions. Whether it be the rich abbeys of Medieval Burgundy or the wine dynasties of California, man has always been part of shaping the terroir. The Bordeaux varieties have strong personalities; are not as translucent to the terroir as Nebbiolo or Pinot Noir for example, so maybe you have to consider the wine a little longer… but I’m in no hurry.

Stockists and links

www.continuumestate.com

Stockist Stannary St. Wine Co.2013 Continuum £200