A Conversation with Angelina Mondavi on Legacy, Chemistry, and the Millennial Palate. By Martha Cisneros Paja
In the beginning of June 2026, I had the incredible opportunity to sit down with Angelina Mondavi in New York. Meeting her was an absolute masterclass in grit, precision, and purpose. I was naturally excited to meet her! She is the granddaughter of Mr. Peter Mondavi, who is a well known man in the wine industry. Our conversation quickly revealed a deep, effortless connection, being of almost the same age.
Seeing her carry the weight of one of Napa Valley’s most titanic historical legacies with such immense honor, profound respect, and forward-thinking energy is nothing short of inspiring.
In late 2025, Angelina stepped into the role of Head Winemaker at Charles Krug. Charles Krug is the oldest commercial wine estate in Napa Valley (founded in 1861). It was a historic milestone, marking her as the first woman in the Mondavi family to guide winemaking for the legendary property. But if you think she is intimidated by the ghosts of the past, you don’t know Angelina. She has been playing in these vineyards her entire life; the dirt is in her DNA.
What follows is an intimate look into her world: a space where strict analytical chemistry meets ancestral intuition, where aggressive vineyard restructuring is paving the way for the future, and where an uncompromising sensory discipline keeps the winemaking pure.
For clarity and readability, the original question format has been removed. The content has been carefully restructured and consolidated into thematic sections to improve the overall flow of the article.
“When Stacy Clark retired, stepping into the Head Winemaker role felt like a natural transition because I’ve been playing in these vineyards my entire life. It’s nothing new to me, but I am taking on a different role and acting in a different capacity. Now, I have to look at things not just from a passionate winemaking standpoint, but from an owner’s standpoint. I’m making decisions that must benefit the company while simultaneously benefiting the quality of the wine.
It allows me to take a step back, look at everything, and ask: Where can we change? How can we evolve? Where can we become more efficient? What can we do to elevate the work in the vineyard? My focus is making sure that our baseline quality stays excellent so that anything we grow has the potential to make it into our higher-tier vintage selections. Working closely with our vineyard management team really helps achieve that.”
“I have to look at vineyard management from one point of view, everything starts in the vineyard, so that’s where my primary emphasis is—and then switch to the winemaking side to streamline operations without sacrificing premium quality. Beyond that, I have to put on my consumer hat and look at my own age bracket. I am 43.
There are countless articles written about Gen Z, Gen X, and Millennials, but no one really asks someone like me, who sits at the top tier of the Millennial bracket, what we are actually looking for. I always giggle because I know exactly what we want: we want authenticity. We are looking for a purpose and a real reason to get together, hang out with our girlfriends, and talk about life, family, and children. During COVID, we collectively lost our way a bit, and now we are trying to figure out how to get back to those meaningful connections. That community aspect is critical for the next phase of the wine industry.”
“Being a woman in this industry means you are constantly dealing with pressure. I often feel like I am defending myself or justifying a winemaking decision when I shouldn’t have to. But my choices come from a place of deep experience—I’ve worked harvests around the world in Argentina, Italy, and Australia. That global perspective helped me consolidate what works and what doesn’t, and now I’m incorporating those international techniques here in the United States.
For instance, our family has embraced technology to get back to the natural basics of fermentation. We use a macro-oxygenation system to introduce a precise, tiny amount of oxygen directly into the tank during fermentation. This keeps the yeast population incredibly strong and resilient, allowing them to finish the entire fermentation cleanly without us needing to dump a plethora of synthetic nutrients into the juice. Going back to clean, basic principles is necessary in today’s winemaking world.”
“Our 2024 Sauvignon Blanc is an outstanding, simple, and easy-drinking style a 100% Sauvignon Blanc. At under 13% alcohol, it’s perfect for a 92-degree weekend. For the 2024 vintage, we used a traditional method of cold-soaking the skins for 6 to 8 hours before pressing. However, that requires massive work-hours because the team has to manually dig the skins out of the tanks to move them to the press.
Looking toward the 2025 vintage, I evaluated whether that process made financial sense or if we should simplify our white wine workflow to focus our heavy labor on the reds. So, starting in 2025, we shifted to a direct-to-press program. We no longer destem and cold-soak the Sauvignon Blanc. By pressing the whole clusters directly, we speed up the press program and make it much more delicate. I get the exact same juice yield, but because we aren’t squeezing the fruit so hard, we avoid extracting any harsh bitterness or unwanted seed tannins. The result is a softer, more ethereal, and inviting wine.
Even with the change, you still get those classic lemongrass and lemon blossom notes because I am strictly maintaining my dad and grandfather’s low-temperature fermentation style.”
“My grandfather, Peter Mondavi Sr., pioneered cold fermentation techniques in Napa Valley. I always joke that if my grandfather had patented cold fermentation and stabilization, I wouldn’t be working a day in my life—I’d be living on a private island somewhere!
Today, every white winemaker and brewmaster uses cold fermentation to some degree. Technologies that my family discovered and perfected in the late 1940s and 1950s are still used today as if they are modern innovations. It’s a wonderful legacy to remind people about, especially when they taste a beautiful Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc that comes in below 13% ABV. Whites are making a massive comeback in Napa right now.”
“We also make a tiny, limited-release Chenin Blanc—only about 350 cases—sold exclusively through our tasting room. It is a total breath of fresh air: 11.7% alcohol, beautifully balanced, light, and full of yellow fruit character.
The story behind it is fascinating. We planted three acres of Chenin Blanc on our estate property in Yountville. One clone came from a modern nursery, but the other clone came from historic cuttings. My grandfather had originally planted a Chenin vineyard back in 1947 for another grower in the valley. Years later, I tracked down the current owner of that land and asked if we could test the old vines to see if they were virus-free. They came back completely clean!
We took cuttings from those 1947 vines and grafted them onto our rootstock. The wine gives you this incredible complexity, blending the historical, old-school Napa style with modern clones.
We pick the grapes early, between 19 and 20 Brix, because Chenin Blanc’s unique flavors showcase themselves much earlier than its sugar levels do. Stylistically, we use a mix of concrete eggs, stainless steel tanks, and stainless steel barrels. I let the wine sit on its lees in the stainless steel barrels to build a rich texture. The concrete eggs add a beautiful minerality and distinct personality, while the stainless steel tanks preserve that vibrant, crisp acidity.
Back in the 1980s, Charles Krug was a giant producer of Chenin Blanc, making over 280,000 cases a year. But after the Judgment of Paris, Chardonnay became the undisputed queen of California white wine. Growers everywhere ripped out Chenin to plant Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Back then, Chenin was also made in a sweet, high-residual-sugar style, it was almost a gateway drug to wine. Now, forty years later, we are seeing a massive resurgence, but the style has completely evolved. It is bone-dry, vegan, gluten-free, and incredibly refreshing. My ultimate dream is to scale back up and reclaim our crown as a premier producer of California Chenin. It pairs exquisitely with seafood like oysters, clams over pasta, risotto, and paella.”
“We have been incredibly aggressive over the last few years pulling out old, non-producing, or diseased vineyards that weren’t hitting our quality metrics. If a block of grapes isn’t hitting the mark, and we can’t proudly bottle it or easily sell it on the bulk market, there’s no reason to keep it around. In the past, you were sometimes forced to blend those lower-quality blocks into the main wine just to use them, which pulled the overall quality down.
Our 2023 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is the perfect epitome of what happens when you eliminate those weak links. Furthermore, we have a vineyard replanted seven years ago that is finally coming into maturity and showing its true, intense personality. As old blocks are removed, these young, high-quality vineyards are coming into fruition to provide the long-term consistency we need. Having complete estate control over 850 acres in Napa Valley is a massive part of our identity.”
“We are highly sustainable and operate 80% off solar panels, making us predominantly off the grid.” Charles Krug was among the very first wineries in Napa Valley to install solar panels, “and we recently ramped up our infrastructure. We have also significantly minimized our water usage and completely overhauled our glass packaging.” Mondavi mentions.
“Our Sauvignon Blanc and Napa Valley Cabernet bottles have been transitioned to lightweight glass, and we are currently transitioning our Limited Release and Vintage Selection lines to lighter glass as well. This reduces our carbon footprint and CO2 emissions substantially, and it directly benefits consumers by lowering their shipping costs.
Additionally, we transitioned away from mobile bottling trucks for our small-lot boutique wines. We have a state-of-the-art $12 million bottling line right here on site. I challenged the production team to modify our in-house machinery to handle our small 350-case lots rather than spending money to bring an outside truck in. It worked perfectly, and the quality control is vastly superior because we know our own equipment inside and out. We also run a cork recycling program that helps fund local teachers in California, and our tasting room provides reusable, repurposed wine bags instead of single-use paper or plastic.”
“When I am blending, I always taste completely blind. I never want to know which vineyard block is in my glass because human bias is real, and you never want to rule out an outlier. In vintages like 2021 and 2023, certain unexpected blocks performed exceptionally well, while traditional powerhouses took a back seat.
To achieve this precision, we’ve backed off on aggressive vineyard interventions like excessive leaf-pulling. We prefer to let the canopy balance itself naturally. However, in an El Niño year with fluctuating rain forecasts and sudden 110-degree heat spikes, it’s a constant balancing act to open the canopy enough to prevent moisture rot without frying the fruit.
To preserve my palate, I spit out everything I taste and keep an incredibly strict sensory routine. I do all of my critical blending and analysis first thing in the morning between 7:30 AM and 11:30 AM when my mind and palate are completely fresh. Before a big tasting day, I adhere to strict rules:
Women naturally possess a highly sensitive sense of smell, and when you combine that biology with years of professional oenology training, even the slightest background scent can completely distort your perception of a wine’s delicate nuances.”
As I watched Angelina pour the final drops of the Family Reserve, I couldn’t help but wonder about the delicate labels we wrap around ourselves. In a valley obsessed with status, vintage years, and old boys’ clubs, here was a woman quietly resetting the entire table using nothing but pure chemistry and raw authenticity. It made me realize that maybe legacy isn’t something you inherit like a dusty family portrait. Perhaps it’s something you aggressively prune, reshape, and pour out fresh for the people who matter most.
Until next time, winelovers.
Martha Cisneros Paja is an Engineer, Cava Educator and WSET Level 2 certified, founder of Latinas Wine Club Inc. and author of Mexican Wines: A guide to Fall in Love with Wines of Mexico . Read more about one of the most hard-working Latinas in Wine here.
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