Exams, Open Roads, and a Week in Wine Country
On diploma tests, family milestones, and what happens when you finally put the study cards down and just drive.
Jennifer Ann Blair writes. Food, wine, a German Shepherd named Archie, and whatever the day brings.
I fly into Napa on Monday for two WSET Diploma exams, Units 1 and 2, back-to-back, which seemed like a reasonable idea in January and feels considerably less reasonable now.
Here’s what I know: I studied. I also forgot most of what I studied. There is a real argument that I should have taken Unit 1 in March when it was offered, let it settle, then come back for Unit 2. I didn’t do that. I’m doing both at once, which is either efficient or optimistic, or a combination of the two that the exam results will clarify. My shoulder is giving me trouble, and my writing arm may or may not cooperate on the day. What was I thinking.
I’m going to give it everything I have, and then I’m going to close the study cards.
They’re on Wednesday. Wish me luck.
After the Exams
Robert Mondavi Winery just reopened after a three-year transformation, timed to its 60th anniversary. The parking lot is now a meadow planted with sweet peas, deer grass, and salvias. Visitors pass through the famous arch into a courtyard garden before entering a living room-like reception area. The iconic tower has been restored and now houses the wine library. Light-filled, open spaces blur the boundaries between indoors and outdoors. The vineyard is always visible, always present.
The renovation touches everything. A new cellar with state-of-the-art fermentation vessels allows small vineyard lots to be fermented separately, capturing optimal ripeness from each. The winery is Napa Green certified. The estate vineyard has been CCOF organic certified since 2023. They were among the first in Napa to transition to electric tractors. Rainwater capture, water recycling, smart soil sensors. Robert Mondavi believed in stewardship of the land.
I’ll be tasting at The Mondavi Table, their Wine and Food Pairing experience. Field notes to follow.
Napa and the Hospitality Wave
Napa’s hospitality story runs deeper than the renovation. Before the 1976 Judgment of Paris, Napa was an agricultural community focused entirely on production. No tourism, no tasting rooms, no epicurean events. Robert Mondavi changed that. He was among the first to open the winery estate to the public, pairing wine with food, art, and culture at a time when that simply wasn’t done. By the 1980s, luxury retreats and destination restaurants followed. Then a second wave around 2016 shifted things again, away from transactional drop-in tastings toward appointment-only, bespoke, experiential visits. What’s reopening now is the culmination of fifty years of that evolution.
Robert Mondavi
Robert Mondavi was born in 1913 to Italian immigrant parents who eventually landed in Napa Valley. In 1966, he opened the first major winery in Napa since Prohibition, determined to prove that California could produce wines to rival the best in Europe. What’s less often told is what it cost him to get there. He left the family winery after a bitter dispute with his brother Peter, started over with $200,000, and built something the wine world hadn’t seen before.
In 1970, Baron Philippe de Rothschild approached Mondavi in Hawaii with an unlikely proposal. Make a Cabernet Sauvignon together in Napa Valley. While every other winemaker in the valley was trying to beat Bordeaux, Mondavi said yes. When they formalized the partnership in France eight years later, the Baron conducted the meeting from his bed, in his 70s, with a servant standing by. In 1979, they officially agreed to a 50/50 joint venture. Opus One became America’s first ultra-premium Bordeaux-style blend, made in Oakville by two men who understood that the best way to prove you belong at the table is to set a place for someone else.
Rothschild believed that wine, art, and the table were inseparable. Mondavi believed the same.
Mondavi had a reverence for craft, a sense of cultural expression, and the understanding that great wine is never created in isolation. It lives at the table.
He traveled the world promoting Napa Valley, founded a cultural center and an art school, helped restore an opera house, and died in 2008. He and his brother Peter reconciled three years before the end.
The winery he built from a family argument and a dream is now 60 years old and just reopened. It’s now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Constellation Brands. Robert would probably have had opinions about that. The wines are still worth drinking.
Then the Road
From Napa south to Carmel, my sister and my nephew, who just graduated from middle school. I missed the ceremony but not the party. That’s what matters. A quick turn, then back on Highway 1 down to San Luis Obispo for my niece’s college graduation. More family, more celebrating, the kind of week that reminds you what all the table-setting is actually for.
Archie stays home with a sitter. He'll survive.
What I’m Listening To
Going up: Vine Pair Wine 101 with Keith Beavers. Keith is VinePair’s tasting director, a former Italian restaurant and wine bar operator, and one of the most genuinely enjoyable people to learn wine from. Funny, transparent, knows everyone in the business, and tastes more wine than should be legal. I wish I had his job. He recently joined Substack, though he hasn’t posted yet. Worth subscribing now just to be there when he does.
He also did a five-part podcast series on Robert Mondavi and his family. If you’re heading to Napa or just want to understand why the man mattered, start there.
Coming home: My mom is riding back with me, so we're switching to Audible. Something with history, intrigue, and enough plot to keep us both awake through the Grapevine. James Patterson is not beneath us.
What I’m Reading
Kelsey Erin Shipman writes Cheese Toast with White People on Substack. I’ve been reading her work and find it refreshing, sharp, and worth your time. Go see for yourself.
And this week on the road is when I finally give the writers I subscribe to the attention they deserve. There’s a stack of posts waiting, and I intend to read every one. If you’re a writer I subscribe to, thank you for putting the work out. I’ll be reading.
Also in my bag: MFK Fisher’s Consider the Oyster. Research for July, and the right book for wine country.
Before You Go
Have you ever walked into something you were wildly underprepared for and done it anyway?
I'm at the table. Write back. I read every one.
If this landed, tap the heart. It helps more people find the table.
Next Time
Four recipes you may have missed. Then I'll be back from the road.
Come to the Table: The Reading Series
A reading series launching in July 2026. MFK Fisher's Consider the Oyster, a dedicated chat, and a monthly discussion. Less newsletter, more gathering. If that sounds like your kind of conversation, a paid subscription is $60 a year.
Jennifer Ann Blair writes about living — food, wine, memory, and whatever the day puts on the table. Everything is free at jenniferannblair.com.
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something I recommend, I may earn a small commission, at no cost to you, and only for things I’d tell you about anyway.
You have a very busy time ahead but I believe it will be very enjoyable and very satisfying Have a wonderful time❤️