Growing up a Mondavi was no big deal in Napa Valley.

When Rob Mondavi Jr. went to school, most of his classmates’ parents were Californian winemakers. In after-school sports, everyone on his teams seemed to have parents that made wine, sold wine or were somehow in the hospitality industry.

It’s the Napa Valley bubble; when everyone around you is involved in the same profession, it becomes commonplace. But when he went to college, Mondavi realized his surname’s recognition.

As the winemaker at Michael Mondavi Family Estate, a venture between his father, Michael, his mother, Isabel, and sister Dina, Rob Mondavi Jr. wants to carve his own niche in the wine industry.

“When your grandfather is Robert Mondavi,  you can’t re-summit Everest for the first time, it’s already been done,” Mondavi said. “They were the first to do great things with Napa Valley wine. Now I need to find where I fit in, I know I can’t step in the same river twice.”

Instead, Mondavi has stepped back into the MMFE vineyards high atop Atlas Peak and walked through the cellar with a plenty of questions and a critical eye.

Winemaker spotlight 

Technological advancements in wine making provide winemakers with instant feedback. It used to take days to collect data that is now ready with the push of a button which allowed a winemaker’s process to become very streamlined in the cellar.

But was it at the expense of getting boots into the vineyard?

“I think we did it in the winery,” Mondavi said. “Now, we need to get back into the vineyard. I’d like to see Napa Valley dig into the science of the vineyard.”

Which was part of the makeover Mondavi executed at MMFE. He was tired of guessing when work should be done in the vineyard. Technology unraveled riddles in the cellar, but the vineyard had a whole new challenge he thought was overlooked.

With consultation from Danny Schuster, a viticulturist Mondavi called a “plant scientist,” MMFE began its transformation.

“I wanted to quantify why we did things in the vineyard,” Mondavi said. “Just because everyone else did a green harvest or dropped fruit at a certain time doesn’t necessarily mean it makes sense.”

The process needed to be changed. The crew had dropped fruit too early in the past and instead, waited until the seeds had gone from gelatinous to hard. This way the vine only cared about getting the hanging fruit clusters ripe. They also picked at different times, which told the plan to stop its vegetative cycle. Mondavi wanted a precise, compact plant and the vineyards responded well to the adjustments.

Also added was a permanent cover crop which mitigated the reflective properties of the high altitude vineyards. Dialing into the needs of the vine, Mondavi was able to increase the overall phenolics and balance a wine’s tannin profile. Changes in the vineyard led to changes in the cellar. Different fruit allowed Mondavi to eliminate tannin additions. Barrels were no longer toasted as the vineyard modifications led to less austerity in the wines.

Perhaps the final piece was the addition of an assistant winemaker and enologist – an expert in the chemistry and biology of wine – that shook up the wine making team in a healthy way. Mondavi wanted a “young, aggressive and brutally honest team.”

“The difference between a good and great wine is in the details,” said Mondavi, quoting his late grandfather, Robert Mondavi. “I knew the vineyards needed to evolve to get us to the next level.”

What to buy

Emblem Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 ($35) is a great wine to get introduced to the MMFE. From a blend of hillside and valley vineyards, comes a fuller-bodied red where there's a harmonic balance between the tannins, acidity and blackberry flavors.

Animo Sauvignon Blanc 2014 ($65) had citrus aromas of grapefruit and Meyer lemon with crisp stone fruit flavors. In the vineyard, Mondavi said "you can taste the fresh flintiness as you eat the grape." Which translates beautifully in the wine. The fresh fruit, wet-stone minerality and taut herbal note of thyme perform a complementary juggling act that lingers on through the finish.

Animo Cabernet 2012 ($85) is elegant mountain fruit with a nose of black cherry and cassis. There's chalky tannins but the texture is silky in your mouth. There are dark cherry flavors that linger on.

• James Nokes writes a bi-weekly wine column for the Daily Chronicle. He’s been tasting, touring and collecting in the wine world for several years. Contact him at news@daily-chronicle.com.​