Hunt: My guess is that your right about Mondavi, I think when he opened up
it may have fume blanc, chenin blanc & gamay rose as he first commercial
releases. I have a wine guide to California that mentions some of the wines
of the 60s. It was a paperback by Signet, I also have a book by Bob Thomson
from the early 70's coffee table style that dealt with the first wave I
remember Yverdon and Cuvaison was in it. If i'm not mistaken 75 was
Mondavi's first cab Reserve--although the 1970 came in Unfiltered & Unfined.
71 & 72 were so years and people like Chapallet made good 73s but 1974 was a
break out year. I thought 70 was the better vintage. When I visited
California, I'd hit all the wineshops & built a nice stock of cabs from
66-74 for tastings, other than Diamond Creek, I had about everybody worth
having. The best wine in those tastings was the 70 BV, then three wines from
Milton Eisele were terrific; the 1971 Ridge Eisele, the 1974 Conn Creek
(made by a bankrupt Lyndhurst) and a wine made for Mr Eisele in 1971 by
Norman Mini who was employed by Mondavi. Starting 1975 Phelps had the
Eisele until it went to Arrujo. Mini made Eisele wine for their household
until his death in 1975 or 76. A small winery in Berkeley, Travis Fretter
then made Mr Eisele's wine as as his own cab. Eisele was a Kaiser exec and
Fretter a typical laid back "hippie" yet side by side Fretter's Eisele did
well not as good as the Mini or Phelps bottling. Fretter did sell some
Eisele cab commercially with a Napa Valley designation.

More then you ever wanted to know............
"Hunt" > wrote in message
...
> In article >, says...
> >
> >Depending on storage. the 66 BV is a classic although I've preferred the
> >70--- the Sebastiani is vin ordinaire no matter how it was stored.
>
> [SNIP]
> Mondavi may have made something
> [SNIP]
>
> Joe,
>
> In '97 R Mondavi hosted a 30yr retrospective of his Cabs (sans '84-85) in
> Denver. The first one (he claimed that it was his first "released"
vintage)
> was '67, and was drinking wonderfully then. While there may have been
"test
> batches" of Cab from him before, I think that he missed the '66 vintage.
>
> Just a side-note,
> Hunt
>