Located in Napa Valley, California, the award winning Robert Mondavi Winery was founded in1966 by Robert Mondavi, a legendary icon and pioneer, he was also known as the Godfather of the California wine movement. The Robert Mondavi Winery has become known as one of the world’s leading innovators, producers, and marketers of fine wine. The winery was created with a vision to craft wines that could stand in the company of the greatest wines of the world. Since 1997, Robert Mondavi wines have been made by an exceptionally talented female chief winemaker named Geneviève Janssens.
As leaders and pioneers in the California wine industry, in the mid-1980s, Robert and his son Tim helped establish the clear and logical definitions of appellations within Napa Valley. The winery was also the first to create a hospitality and experiential driven approach to tour and tastings developed to enhance the consumer understanding of the role that fine wine as part of a gracious lifestyle.
Robert Mondavi Winery
The Robert Mondavi Winery has been a leader in the sustainable wine movement and was the first to formally adopt a natural farming approach to the cultivation of estate vineyards. Certified sustainable, the winery has an approach that extends beyond rules and structures of organic farming and considers overall wine quality and the impact on the greater environment. The winery has also undertaken further experiments in natural farming and in 1998 became the first winery to receive an “Innovator” award from California’s Environmental Protection Agency. As a joint effort in 1995, the Robert Mondavi Winery and the Napa County Resource Conservation District created the Napa Sustainable Winegrowing Group (NSWG).
“It starts with the earth, the legacy of what we have received from our ancestors and what we are going to leave for the future generation. We must work to maintain the land, to grow so that we all live in symbiosis: the earth, the vines, the people—care creates quality”
Geneviève Janssens
Geneviève Janssens
Geneviéve moved to the Napa Valley in 1978 and from 1978 – 1979 she worked at Robert Mondavi Winery as a lab and assistant enologist and was very interested in the winemaking revolution taking hold in the state. She was drawn to Robert Mondavi Winery’s philosophy in winemaking and their commitment to sustainable winegrowing.
Born to a French family in Morocco and raised in France, Geneviéve’s formal wine education began under the tutelage of the legendary “three fathers” of modern enology—Jean Ribereau-Gayon; his son, Pascal Ribereau-Gayon; and Emile Peynaud—with whom she studied at the University of Bordeaux, France. After receiving her National Diploma of Enology in 1974, she returned to her family’s vineyards in Corsica and France, which she managed from 1974 to 1977. Concurrently, she also owned and operated her own enology laboratory in Provence and served as consulting enologist to many French chateaux in the mid-seventies.
Philosophically her raison d’etre aligned with that of the Robert Mondavi Winery making for her a perfect career match. She returned to Robert Mondavi in 1989, where she became Director of Production at Opus One Winery. Then, in 1997, she came full circle as the Director of Winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery. In 2000, she helped implement the To Kalon Project, the winery’s first major renovation since it was founded in 1966. She considers the To Kalon estate to be “one of the most extraordinary vineyards on earth.”
An award winning winemaker, Geneviève has won a few of the most prestigious awards in the industry including Best Woman Winemaker by Sakura Wine Award (2020 Japan), Wine Star Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast (2010) and Officer of L’Ordre National du Merite Agricole (2009). To get to know this legendary winemaker in more detail, I sat down with her to talk to her about the challenges and highlights of her career, sustainability, and to tell us more about how the Robert Mondavi Winery has collaborated with NASA.
Grab a glass of California Wine and shift into ‘the Golden State of Mind’ as we celebrate California Wine Month this April.
AA- What has been your biggest challenge when it comes to winemaking and/or your career?
GJ – Managing home and personal life while growing in my career was the biggest challenge for me – especially when the children were young. It was very important for me to attend their soccer games and be there to cheer them on. Fortunately, I was able to rely on the strength of the winemaking team to support me. They all understood the constraint.
AA – What has been the highlight of your career?
GJ – Inspiring, mentoring and nurturing new generations of winemakers has been one of the biggest highlights. It’s important to pass on our knowledge to them.
Also, it has been such a privilege to walk and get to know To Kalon Vineyard all these years from 1978 until now. Winning the Best Woman Winemaker by Sakura Wine Award (2020 Japan), Wine Star Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast (2010) and Officer of L’Ordre National du Merite Agricole (2009) are also highlights.
AA – What is it about Napa Valley that inspires you to continue to make world-class wines?
GJ – I came to Napa Valley in 1978 inspired by Robert Mondavi’s vision to make world-class wine. I believe Mr. Mondavi was right by selecting To Kalon Vineyard to achieve his dream. We have the soil, the climate, and the people to continue to make great wines and making that vision a reality keeps me inspired. I would do it all over again.
AA – Are there places on your bucket list you’d like to travel to and why those places?
GJ – I have always been inspired by Nature and how people can work in harmony to grow delicious crops. My dream would be to visit regions which are producing vanilla beans, coffee beans, cacao beans and tea. All these crops require a lot of technology, knowledge of weather impact, soil and terroir, and people and teamwork. They are very comparable to growing grapes and making wine since they are very technical.
AA – Are RMW wines organic and sustainable?
GJ – Robert Mondavi Winery has always been committed to sustainable culture and we are currently converting To Kalon Vineyard to Organic Certification. We will get the certificate in 2023.
AA – How have you seen female voices grow in Napa Valley and at Robert Mondavi Winery?
GJ – In my experience, female voices have been always heard at RMW. I was recruited by Zelma Long who was director of winemaking at RMW in 1978. She was already working there for the last 10 years. She always mentored female winemakers.
AA – Tell us more about the collaboration with NASA and how important to Robert Mondavi
GJ – In the Mid -1990’s, NASA started a collaboration with RMW providing the vineyard team high level NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) aerial imagery which helped us to understand the difference in vigor in vineyards. It gave us a really great insight of our vineyards. We were at the beginning of the Phyloxera and RMW vineyard team relied on the aerial pictures to better understand how the disease was spreading cross the vineyards. UC Davis collaborated with us and NASA in that research. More and more the Wine Industry was interested by the vigor maps. RMW asked many vintners to participate in the collaboration with NASA. RMW wanted to help the wine industry. The imagery helped guide irrigation decisions. We are still relying a lot on NASA imagery.
AA – What are your passions outside of wine?
GJ – Food, Friends, Family
AA – What is your favorite food and wine pairing?
GJ – Boeuf Bourguignon and Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
AA – What is it you’d like people/other women to know, understand, learn about in a career in wine?
GJ – It takes a lot of passion and patience combined with hard work and dedication. An immense love for people and teamwork is also important. Working in the wine industry is incredibly fun and rewarding.
**Look for Robert Mondavi wines and the SWG Approved Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 ($54.95) at the LCBO and fine retailers across Canada.
