This month's museum pick...

Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts

Bob Mondavi’s Vision Leads to a World-Class Culinary Museum in Napa

By Patrick Totty

At long last, a great wine region has a museum that pays it proper honor.

In 1966, after a dispute with his brother Peter over the direction their Charles Krug winery was taking, Robert Mondavi struck off on his own. He left resolved to transform California’s Napa Valley from a well-kept regional secret into a wine region of international repute.

The valley could produce some great wines – notably those from Beaulieu and the late and lamented Inglenook – which local wine lovers knew to keep to as much to themselves as possible. Occasionally a New York, or even a European, wine writer might note the surprising quality of a Napa wine, then shrug and regret that the valley seemed doomed to be stuck forever with the status of a vinicultural wannabe.

Robert Mondavi began changing that. He ranged the world seeking winemaking techniques he could bring back to Napa Valley. He began stressing the varietal names of wines, so that words like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay would begin sticking in people’s minds as representing certain repeatable tastes.

He also began stressing his vines, using the hard-won French technique of forcing  the plants to spend great energy seeking minerals and water. The result was fewer grapes, but ones with intensely concentrated taste – the backbone of memorable wines.

Mondavi’s winery soon joined Beaulieu and Inglenook as benchmark Napa Valley producer. U.S. consumers liked the idea they were getting sophisticated domestic wines at reasonable cost. Other vintners, existing and potential, saw that Mondavi’s attempts to improve Napa Valley’s reputation were not quixotic or implausible.

One of them, a former University of Chicago professor named Warren Winiarski, was convinced to leave the academy behind him and begin tending a small vineyard on the east side of Napa Valley in a sub-region called Stag’s Leap. In 1976, only seven years after he changed careers, Winiarski saw his 1973 cabernet sauvignon stun the entire wine-drinking world by taking first place in a Paris wine-tasting competition that had drawn France’s greatest wine palates and critics. The great Bordeaux reds – Lafite Rothschild, Petrus, Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Margaux, Haut Brion – were all humbled by their low finishes behind Winiarski’s and several other American wines.

That event put Napa Valley on the map for good. Suddenly American wines stood in the front rank, alongside the best that France, Italy and Germany could offer. The valley’s winemakers, including Winiarski, were quick to point out that Robert Mondavi had set the stage for the Paris triumph. From that time on, Mondavi was the valley’s acknowledged doyen, godfather, mentor and virtual paterfamilias.

Fast forward 25 years. Napa continues to rank beside Burgundy and Bordeaux as a front-rank wine region. Local cuisine has caught up to the wines. World-famous restaurants such as Tra Vigne and The French Laundry long ago adopted Chef Alice Waters’ revolutionary approach of using only ultra-fresh, high-quality local produce, meats and cheeses to create their daily specials. Their insistence of such ingredients has fueled as much of a revolution among local food suppliers as Robert Mondavi did among local winemakers.

So it’s no surprise that Napa Valley, which offers the closest America to duplicating  the classic leisurely drive through the French countryside to seek out little restaurant gems, has built a museum to honor its culinary history.

The $55-million, 12-acre “Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts”  opened November 18 in the city of Napa in ceremonies presided over by Robert Mondavi and Julia Childs. Located on the banks of the Napa River, Copia is a combination museum, school and arts center intended “to explore. . .the interrelationships of wine and food with the arts through innovative programming, interactive experiences and exhibitions.”

The facility includes 13,000 square feet of gallery space; a 278-seat auditorium for films concerts, and lectures; an 80-seat demonstration kitchen; a 500-seat outdoor amphitheater; a gourmet dining room, café and wine-tasting area; a library; a gift shop and 3.5 acres of gardens featuring edible organic plants.

Named after the Roman goddess of plenty, Copia (as in “cornucopia” – “horn of Copia [plenty]”) will offer a novel “Legacy Artists in Residence” program where noted historians, restaurateurs, poets, wine writers and artists will visit onsite for a month to lecture and teach classes.

Aside from winery tours, riding the Wine Train and enjoying the pleasures of the valley’s spas and resorts, the Napa Valley experience has always seemed to call called for a focus, a starting point, a summing up. Copia may well be that final piece.

For more information, visit Copia's web site: http://www.copia.org/home.html

Volume 3, December, 2001
ISSN 1538-893X