Robert Mondavi’s enthusiasm for all things related to wine and his own winery was both heartfelt and infectious.

One of the icons in the world of wine died last week. Robert Mondavi, 94, passed away at his home in the Napa Valley after a lifetime of literally and figuratively toiling in the vineyard to insure the growth of wine appreciation around the world. Wine to Mondavi represented more than just a pleasant beverage to enjoy with friends and family around the dinner table.

In his 1998 autobiography, “Harvests of Joy,” Mondavi said: “My passion for bringing wine into the American culture was motivated by a desire to plant deep into the soil of our young country the same values, traditions and daily pleasures that my mother and father had brought with them from central Italy: good food, good wine and love of family.”

He was born to Italian immigrant parents in Virginia, Minnesota, in 1913 where his father had a business supplying wine grapes to other immigrants who worked in the iron ore mines of the region. The family moved to Lodi, California and then later to the Napa Valley. During this time, Robert worked with his father and brother at the Sunny St. Helena Winery. In 1936, he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in marketing.

During World War II, he and his brother Peter convinced his father to purchase the Charles Krug Winery. At Krug the brothers managed the moderately successful winery until family differences forced Robert to establish his own winery in 1966.

The Robert Mondavi Winery was an architectural masterpiece and the first showcase wine facility in the Napa Valley. Mondavi’s innovative public relations ideas and his sales acumen made the winery a must stop spot for wine lovers and tourists alike. He also traveled around the world as a wine evangelist, touting Napa Valley's labors . In 1979, the Robert Mondavi Winery joined forces with Bordeaux First Growth winery Chateau Mouton Rothschild to produce Opus One. Today, Opus One is considered among the best wines in world.

As a personal aside, I had the opportunity to sip that first vintage of Opus during a visit to Mondavi in 1981-- and I owe it all to chili. Let me explain. A few months before the visit to Mondavi, I had won the West Virginia State Chili Cook-off at Snowshoe. My prize: two tickets to L.A. to compete in the World Chili Championship.

While I did not win any prizes in LA, my wife and I, along with two other couples, rented a van for a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway to visit the wine country of Napa and Sonoma. We had called ahead to the Mondavi Winery to see if we could get a tour of the facility. Much to our shock and surprise, our tour guide was Robert Mondavi.

A gracious and humble man, Mondavi’s enthusiasm for all things related to wine and his own winery was both heartfelt and infectious. After walking us through the winery, he stopped in a large cool room where hundreds of new French oak barrels were stacked. Grabbing a long glass tube he called a “thief,” he pulled the bung on one of the barrels and extracted wine from it and put a little in each of our glasses. Then he put his nose to the glass, breathed in the heady aroma of the deep purple wine and said: “Salute.”

As we all sipped this very young and tannic wine, Mondavi explained to us that we were drinking the first vintage of Opus One which would be bottled sometime in the future. What a treat! After a lunch where we were joined by other employees of the winery, we were given two bottles of Schramsberg Sparkling wine along with directions to the site (on the top of a hill in the middle of the Napa Valley) where construction was about to begin on Robert Mondavi’s new home.

At sunset, we ascended the winding gravel road to the top of the hill and found an old and gnarled Acacia tree under which we opened the Schramsberg and toasted Robert Mondavi.  Today, as I reflect on his passing, I once again lift my glass to that very special man. Rest in peace!

My good friend and fellow Gazz blogger Rich Ireland is always touting the compatibility of beer with food, and I have to agree there are some pretty interesting brew and grub combos. But for those of you out there who occasionally sip beverages other than the fruit of the vine, you might be interested in a rather unique sipping and supping event featuring some pretty unusual food and beverage pairings. How about full course gourmet meal accompanied by……Scotch? Well, listen up.

Bridge Road Bistro in Charleston and Boathouse Bistro in Morgantown will hold Scotch and related spirits tasting dinners in October. A Scotch master will join guests at the Charleston restaurant Thursday, Oct. 2, and at the Morgantown restaurant Thursday, Oct. 16, as they enjoy a spirited dinner with an appetizer-to-dessert menu that features the Scotch they’ll be drinking. In Charleston, the Scotch tasting will feature The MacCallan Scotch and in Morgantown, the featured Scotch will be The Balvenie.

Both dinners begin at 6 p.m. and cost $100 per person, with a portion of that being a donation to the Appalachian Education Initiative So, if you’re a Scotch lover, call 304-225-0101 and reserve your place

So, back to the “written” version of my wacky world of wine (see post below on the whereabouts of "WineBoy, the Webcast"). I’ve been cleaning out my recent tasting notes and have come up with several goodies that should provide you with a blend of red, white and rose wines for your consideration. Here are some goodies: 2005 Vincent Giardin Cuvee Saint Vincent Bourgogne Rouge ($25) – The 2005 vintage in Burgundy was a sensational success for both red (pinot noir) and white (chardonnay) wines. It is very rare for Burgundian pinot noir to have both finesse and richness, but the ’05 Cuvee Saint Vincent is a wine that should please both the European and American palate as it is light-bodied, yet round with sweet fruit flavors. This beauty blends the vinification styles of both Burgundy and California to produce a wine with aromas of It would make a superb accompaniment to roasted pork tenderloin in a light mustard crème sauce.

2006 Gramona Gessami ($18) – This unique Spanish wine (from Catalonia) is a blend of 70 percent muscat and 30 percent sauvignon blanc. With aromas of spice and ripe pear, this golden wine is chock full of slightly sweet citrus and apricot flavors that are balanced out by good acidity. It would be a delicious match to spicy oriental foods like Thai curry.

2007 Sierra Cruz Carmenere ($10) -As a member of the cabernet sauvignon family, carmenere (pronounced car-men-yare) originated in Bordeaux as one of the grapes permitted for use in the red blends of that storied region. While it is not now used in France, Chilean winemakers have embraced it and several wineries in that country produce it as a single varietal. The ’07 Sierra Cruz is a very pleasant, soft, medium-bodied wine that has fresh cabernet-like aromas and flavors of spice, dark fruit and black pepper. It is a great value and also would be a nice match with marinated and grilled skirt or flank steak.

2007 Marques De Caceres Rose ($12) – A lovely, fruit-forward and bone dry rose from the famous Rioja region of Spain. The '07 Marques De Caceres is a blend of tempranillo and grenache and has aromas of strawberry and hay. In the mouth, this wine has a dried cherry and spice flavor profile that gives it a richness that is balanced by crisp acidity. Great for a picnic and it is especially simpatico with grilled chicken.

2007 Sierra Cruz Sauvignon Blanc ($10) This Chilean sauvignon blanc just oozes with bright citrus flavors and a nose of herbs and grass. Stylistically, it is a cross between the herbal, grassy wines so prevalent in Sonoma County and the riper, more fruit forward products of New Zealand. Match it with pasta sauced with arugula, pine nuts, mushrooms and parmesan.

2006 Conclass Rueda ($12) – This is another sleeper white from Spain that is simply delicious! Crisp, yet full flavored, this wine is a combination of verdelho and sauvignon blanc and really delivers with citrus flavors and stony minerality. It is a mouthful of wine, but very balanced and just begs to paired with Chilean sea bass sautéed in olive oil, shallots, a pinch of thyme and cracked white pepper.

Chef Odeh doing his thing at last year's gourmet wine and food weekend
Canaan Valley Resort is planning a “Gourmet Wine Weekend in the Mountains," and I’ll be there to help spread the joy!

Join me and other wine and food lovers on November 14-16 for an entertaining and educational gourmet extravaganza. I’ll select wines from around the world that will be paired with a cornucopia of culinary delicacies prepared by Canaan Valley Resort’s classically trained European executive chef, Nemat Odeh

And the good news is you will have the option of attending the entire weekend, or choosing to participate in individual events ala carte.

The Schedule of Events:

-Fri., Nov. 14, 7 p.m. - A “taste-around reception” where more than 20 wines from the world’s most prestigious regions can be sampled with matching culinary treats, including crab cakes, beef tenderloin, smoked salmon, pasta, a raw bar and other treats.

-Sat. Nov. 15, 11 a.m. – I will conduct an educational wine tasting and seminar where guests will taste and evaluate a number of wines from around the world along with matching cheeses.

-Sat. 12 noon - The tasting will be followed by a delicious three- course luncheon with specially selected wines.

-Sat. 6 p.m. - An aperitif reception featuring a selection of wines to prepare the palate for the multi-course Grand Gourmet Dinner which will follow.

-Sat. 7 p.m. – Chef Odeh is planning an autumn-inspired five-course menu with accompanying wines, featuring Continental cuisine and using only the freshest seasonal ingredients. I will match his goodies with some truly outstanding wines.

For information on pricing or to make a reservation, you may call 800-622-4121 or visit online at:www.canaanresort.com.

When I was growing up in an ethnic family back in the 1950s, wine was considered an appropriate beverage to be consumed with meals on a daily basis. However, conventional thinking back then held that only reprobates or winos regularly drank wine. These were the moral police of the time whose idea of moderate drinking consisted of consuming three martinis at lunch. Thankfully, things have changed.

Even so, I’m always looking for ways to justify (my wife would say rationalize) my indulgences and wine is always at the top of the list. Years ago, a study known as “The French Paradox” suggested that regular and moderate consumption of wine (especially red) with meals was the reason the French experienced significantly fewer heart attacks than Americans. This despite the fact that the French diet is extremely high in fat.

We Americans eat a lot fat, too, but we don’t consume enough wine to mitigate the negative effects. Therefore, our rates of cardiac calamities are significantly worse than the French. So while you may disagree, I think there is a pretty strong correlation between regular consumption of wine and cardiac health - and I believe in taking care of my heart!

Another one of my weaknesses is chocolate. When I was a kid, I thought chocolate was about the greatest food in the universe. Not surprisingly, my mother would try and temper my chocoholic tendencies by frightening me with stories about obese chocolate over-indulgers whose teeth were rotten and whose faces were scarred with acne.

But, like admonitions regarding carnal thoughts, warnings about the ruinous effects of too much chocolate were largely ignored. Indeed, they only enhanced the forbidden pleasure of surreptitiously wolfing down a couple of Hershey Bars in the closet of my bedroom.

Now, fast-forward a couple of decades when, much to my pleasure, I read a story about how researchers at the University of California at Davis released a study demonstrating that dark chocolate has similar heart-healthy qualities to red wine. In a letter to The Lancet (a medical publication) some years ago, these researchers reported finding that compounds in cocoa had an effect similar to those in wine in preventing LDL oxidation in the blood stream. One researcher said, “The pleasant pairing of red wine and dark chocolate could have synergistic advantages beyond their complementary tastes.”

So, where am I going with all of this? Well, it seems to me that by pairing chocolate with red wine we could create the perfect food and wine marriage, and also double our cardiac benefits at the same time!

Holy Cow, I thought, this information is on a par with the discovery of penicillin! I’ve always suspected that good things are good for you. Unfortunately, too much of a good thing is not good for you. The key word apparently is moderation in both wine and chocolate consumption. Oh well, that’s a small price to pay for this heavenly experience.

Over the past several years, I have done considerable personal research to validate the above-mentioned studies and have come to the unscientific conclusion that there is just about nothing better for dessert than a good full-bodied red wine and your favorite chocolate.

For those of you who are adventuresome, try this combination: Holls (or some other fine chocolate purveyor) and the cabernet sauvignon of your choice. One of my favorites to match with chocolate is Franciscan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, see above ($22).

Go ahead, give it a try-- you’re too old to worry about pimples.