Living: Monda-Mouton

A marriage in the vineyard

It is no secret that the best California wines rank with France's finest. The situation suggests marriage, no? Yes. Two of the world's proudest and most accomplished winemakers, Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux and Robert Mondavi of the Napa Valley, have in fact already consummated the wedding, which was formally announced last week. The two vintners have joined together to make what they insist will be "the world's greatest wine." The first vintage under the new, as yet unnamed label was harvested last fall; its 2,000 cases are now aging at the Mondavi winery.

It is a unique consummation in the history of winemaking. Baron Philippe, of course, is the fourth-generation owner of Château Mouton Rothschild, one of the world's greatest wineries. Rothschild, whose late wife Pauline was American, has long admired California wines. Mondavi is the leading producer of premium varietals in the U.S. He travels frequently in Europe and has introduced French winemaking techniques and equipment to California. The red wines they will make together in the Napa Valley will be mostly from cabernet sauvignon grapes, with some merlot and cabernet franc, approximately the Mouton mix. The first bottles, to be released in 1983 at the earliest, will probably cost between $25 and $35. By comparison, a Mondavi Cabernet Reserve '74 sells for around $30. A Mouton Rothschild of a comparable year, say '75, fetches twice as much. As Robert Mondavi said years before the joint venture, "There is a place for a relatively small winery to produce, in a limited quantity, wines that will have the complexity and character to be found in the great growths of the world." ∎