45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 43% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Merlot.

The iconic Robert Mondavi created in his many decades in the Napa Valley a legacy that is untouchable and still palpable not only at such wineries as Robert Mondavi Winery and Opus One, but everywhere else in the wine world. But the trail that leads to the true future of the Mondavi legacy was blazed not along Robert’s beloved Highway 29 but high atop Pritchard Hill, near Lake Hennessey, at the Continuum Estate. Here Tim Mondavi, Mr. Mondavi’s youngest son and the architect of the RMW and Opus styles, along with his immediate family and his sister Marcia and her family, have created something truly special, truly lasting and something that embodies the logical extension of the original Mondavi manifesto.

Continuum began originally as a search for top-notch Oakville vineyard land but wound up as something even better. Starting with the retiring Leighton Taylor’s original Cloudview Estate vineyard just above Bryant Family, Chappellet and the rest of Pritchard Hill’s aristocracy, the estate was expanded, reimagined, converted to organic farming and planted to contain a greater percentage of Tim’s beloved Cabernet Franc than previously. A stunning new winery has been recently completed, and Continuum, the winery’s Grand Vin, has grown to be 100% estate-grown from this most amazing property.

The style here can best be described as ‘mountain Opus One,’ a wine built on Bordelaise-like complexity, an elegant, silky, polished palate and a good dose of Pritchard Hill’s mountain chutzpah. Having been lucky enough to have tried every Continuum to date, I can also say that Tim’s unbridled enthusiasm for this, his first all-estate wine, is very well justified. It is absolutely sensational! The 2022’s resemblance to the cepage of a fine Graves or Margaux is not coincidental. Its dark, dusky flavors, melted mineral, graphite and roasted espresso notes are definitely cut from Haut-Brion-like cloth and its firm and young but ripe finish gives it the same potential for longevity. The difference? All that California extraction and liquid silk on the palate. It’s broad on the palate but with an armature of iron! We loved it.

Drink now for the sheer hedonism of it (decanted, please, for at least an hour) or bury it away—maybe in the spot where your 1978 Mondavi Reserve Cab used to reside!