Robert Mondavi opened his winery in 1966, his reported intention – to produce Californian wines that belonged in the company of the great wines of the world. Through some dedication and a passion, his Winery became a force behind the expansion and success of premium Californian wines both in the United States and wider and many consider him to be a pioneer of Californian wines. Given the producer’s prominence in the Napa Valley, we decided to sample a couple of Robert Mondavi’s premiere wines and let you have our thoughts.

The first wine that we sampled, well, drank really, was his Napa Valley Fumé Blanc, 2007. This is described on the bottle as ‘a crisp barrel aged wine that captured the vivid character on the Sauvignon Blanc grape’. It’s no secret that we are quite fond of Sauvignon Blanc so we thought we were in for a treat. This wine has a good freshness on the nose and swishing it around in our mouths we got it’s creamy full body, presumably developed by the barrel aging, good zesty fruit flavours and a nice acidity that remained in the mouth after swallowing. This is bold full flavoured white that would be a great accompaniment with chicken dishes or maybe something like pasta in a creamy cheese sauce, its body would stand up well and enhance the flavours of such dishes without overtaking them. The Fumé Blanc retails at reasonable £14.99 from Majestic wines and is one to look out for.

The other wine we tried was the Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, which the bottle says ‘Brims with blackberries, plums and spices with smooth oak nuances from barrel aging’. This beautiful red was again good on the nose and velvety smooth when washing it around in the mouth. We got the berry fruit flavours as well as vanilla whilst this sensual wine was gently stroking the tongue. It is a medium/full bodied wine that we drank with a medium rare rib eye steak and it supported the meat extremely well. It would also go well with lamb or other robust meats. It is equally good to drink on its own if you are a red wine lover. The Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon retails at £9.99 from Tesco and is great value for the quality of wine you are getting.

We were suitably impressed by our sampling of these two Robert Mondavi products as we think you would be, so why not give them a try? If you would like to know more about Mondavi wines you can access the web site through www.robertmondaviwinery.com