Michael Mondavi of the Napa Valley is having a spot of bother, not just seeing the value of his company drop by half during the past 12 months, but with his new operation in the Languedoc in the south of France.
He could hardly be accused of being a parochial American abroad. In the past year or so his company has launched two important new international brands - too many, he now admits. One, Luce, is a joint venture in Tuscany with the grand old Frescobaldi family and the other, Sena, defiantly marketed as Chile's most expensive wine, sold alongside Mondavi's cheaper, but still robustly priced, new Caliterra range of Chilean wines.
Perhaps France was bound to be more intractable. What the Mondavis have done, like other outsiders, is attempt to plunder the Languedoc, the world's biggest wine region, for keenly priced familiar varietals, notably Chardonnay and Merlot, all sold as lowly Vins de Pays d'Oc. But Michael Mondavi is still trying to add value to this new line, called Vichon Mediterranean.
"One of the things we're thinking about," he confided during a recent visit to London, "is being more appellation-specific." I was puzzled, and then realised that what he meant was selling his Merlot, say, as a Minervois and his Chardonnay as a Corbieres. This would have a nicely alliterative ring but is of course completely forbidden by France's allpowerful appellation controlee regulations. These insist that only traditional grape varieties qualify for such status. The Languedoc's international varieties are kept firmly in their Vin de Pays place.
Michael Mondavi has had his share of problems. It cannot be easy to grow up as the elder son of Robert Mondavi, the most famous man in California wine, possibly in the world of wine. At 85, Robert is still touring the world, a much-loved but loose and voluble cannon. He has been chairman since this intensely family company went public in 1993. Michael is president, while Tim, his brother, is in charge of production.
The other embarrassment of the past 12 months was running out of wine - and not the red wine that the world's health-conscious wine drinkers have been clamouring for, but common-or-garden Chardonnay of which such a glut has been forecast. The basic diffusion line of the Robert Mondavi Winery, architectural jewel of the Napa Valley, is actually made many miles away, at Lodi in the distinctly unglamorous San Joaquin Valley, from grapes of which only 10 per cent are grown by the Mondavis themselves. These Woodbridge "fighting varietals" retail at about $7.50 (£5) and its annual sales of about 72 million bottles account for three-quarters of the company's sales volume. "When Woodbridge catches a cold, so does the whole company," Mondavi admitted.
Woodbridge's cold last winter cost it valuable distribution in many restaurants and considerable effort has been invested in an attempt to earn back its listings. The only trouble is that many establishments want something cheaper to pour by the glass, which has tempted Mondavi to consider the possibility of launching a less expensive line than Woodbridge.
The fruit is certainly there for the taking. The 1997 California harvest of the top five varieties - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc - was more than 50 per cent bigger than its predecessor, thanks largely to extensive new plantings in the San Joaquin Valley.
So plentiful is affordable wine carrying the name of an internationally recognised variety, that most of the basic California brands which have been hiding behind entirely inaccurate, but usefully vague, names such as Chablis and Burgundy are expected to be upgraded to feature a varietal name on the label over the next year or so. Prices in the general marketplace are not expected to fall - although analysts wonder how long Woodbridge prices can maintain their premium.
Most notable of the so-called generic, as opposed to varietal, wines in the US are the Hearty Burgundy and Mountain White Chablis that are the twin bedrocks of the Gallo empire.
Did Mondavi really think these famous brand names would be abandoned? "No, they're much too strong! But now he's coming out with a new brand without the name Gallo in it every month. He throws 'em at the wall and sees what sticks." Mondavi laughed incredulously.
It was significant, if by no means surprising, that he referred to this, the largest wine company in the world, as "he". We both knew immediately that he was talking about 89-year-old Ernest Gallo, the paterfamilias and marketing genius.
While Robert Mondavi has held the moral high ground of California wine over three decades, Ernest Gallo has made the money and the sales records.
Gallo is also reputed to have engineered some ultra-favourable inheritance legislation subsequently denied the Mondavis, which precipitated the public flotation of the fancy Napa Valley firm. And thanks to heavy investment in Napa's neighbouring rival county, Sonoma, Gallo has taken a steep turn upmarket recently, fighting head to head with Mondavi in the so-called ultra-premium wine market.
"If you look at all categories," said Mondavi, (like all California wine producers in thrall to the giant), "he's a late entrant, then grows the market, then dominates. I believe he will be the dominant player in the premium wine industry, and I believe he'll do more good for it than harm. He should introduce a lot of non wine drinkers to it and hopefully we can show them that the value offered by the Robert Mondavi Family of Wines (the company's new catchphrase) is better."
Michael Mondavi clearly has considerable respect for the Gallo grandchildren, who are building a new image for the dominant company, so I asked him about Kendall Jackson, the company which is his more obvious direct rival, in the US market at least, a relative newcomer but extremely successful.
Mondavi's brow furrowed and he took a meditative sip of coffee. "First of all," he said carefully, "Jess Jackson is a very, very bright guy. He doesn't allow himself to get confused by tradition, which has at least as many strong points as weak." (Who fed him this diplomatic double-talk?) "He is a one-man band, though. The turnover in his team tends to be rapid."
If the Mondavis are thinking about extending their range downwards in price, I wondered whether they were not tempted to gain some kudos, or at least publicity, by entering the much-vaunted super-duper-premium market in which youthful and minuscule vintages of the California cult wines are selling for prices higher than the aristocrats of the wine world, the Bordeaux first growths? "We think wine should be sold as a wine not a perfume," he sniffed. "I think some of our new neighbours are being opportunistic."
More likely future developments include "some sort of joint venture" between Michael and Tim and their cousins, children of the brother with whom Robert Mondavi so famously quarrelled before setting up on his own in 1966; executing a $28 million revamp of the entire Napa Valley winery, already approved, in spite of the disappointing stock market performance; possibly accepting invitations to dabble in China and/or India's growing domestic wine production; and more probably a joint venture in eastern Europe, perhaps Hungary.
"I'd be much more excited by eastern Europe because we can learn so much from the locals," said Mondavi. "In India and China, we'd bring 98 per cent of the knowledge."
Let no one accuse the Mondavis of stasis. - Financial Times service 99178184
The wines:Although Tim Mondavi was one of the first mainstream Californian winemakers to master Pinot Noir, a fact particularly evident in the Reserve bottlings, and Mondavi has had some outstanding success with its Chardonnay Reserve, the company's real strength has always been in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
The Reserve bottling depends heavily on the To-Kalon vineyard next to the Oakville winery and the intense, satin-textured 1994 is so well made it can already be enjoyed even though it shows every sign of lasting until Michael's son, Robert Michael jnr, is lured back from runing his own cigar company. It and the 1995 vintage are sold, however, at nearly £50 a bottle.