Last weekend, the Charles Krug winery celebrated the past with a beautiful and fitting event. But great winemaking isn’t about nostalgia; it’s about the vineyards and the wines of today.

 So, I had a chance to catch up with David Galzignato who was named, or re-named, the Charles Krug winemaker in July. Galzignato was Krug winemaker from 2003 to 2006 where he introduced many innovations. For the two years he was away from Charles Krug, he worked for Lewis Cellars and Paraduxx winery. He also did consulting and worked on his own brand, Mark David Winery.

 The Mondavi family wanted him back. Proprietor Peter Mondavi, Jr., said, “There is a new direction here at Charles Krug and a renewed commitment to producing wines of surpassing quality. Galzignato’s passion and creativity will reinforce all of our efforts to take our Peter Mondavi Family wines to a whole new level.”

Galzignato said, “From here on in, our focus is on ‘focus.’ The winery has made large investments in vineyard enhancement, in winery infrastructure and in fine tuning our barrel program. We have much to learn from our vineyards because many of them have been replanted. We are in the heart of the Napa Valley and that means we should focus on the varieties best grown here — Bordeaux varietals with an emphasis on cabernet sauvignon. We are moving to an estate-based winery.

“Recently, I’ve been experimenting with some special techniques, super aeration, extended cold soaking, specialty yeasts but all in an effort to make our fine vineyards really ‘pop.’ We want to improve our overall winemaking to be right up there with the very best of the Napa Valley and then be consistent at that level. I have total support of the family and that’s why working here is and will be exciting.”

It all starts in the vineyards, and the Krug’s attention to vineyards is large and emphatic in scale with over $20 million invested in vineyards alone. In the past decade more than 450 of the winery’s 850 acres have been replanted. The replanting initiative has been very focused on red Bordeaux varietals; that number is more than 70 per cent of all planted acreage with several new clonal selections in the new mix.

Galzignato continued, “We are offering now three distinct tiers of wine. The first is our standard tier that we think are excellent wines and all from the Napa Valley. Those wines are our cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sauvignon blanc. This group of wines is in the $22 range.

“Next, our Family Reserve tier, where we look at specific vineyard blocks to make wines that are elegant and rich. In this tier are: “Generations,” our Bordeaux blend and the Charles Krug Vintage Selection Cabernet Sauvignon.

Our third tier is the “Limited Release” series, produced in very small quantities — in the 400 case range. At present the wines are: Charles Krug Limited release IX Clone, Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon, a cabernet franc and a Lot XI Zinfandel Port.”

This group of wines constitutes about 70,000 cases, according to Galzignato. Krug has another top winemaker, who has been at Krug for 23 years, John Moynier. He is in charge of the C.K. Mondavi brand; that includes vintage dated chardonnay, cabernet, merlot, pinot grigio, white zinfandel, sauvignon blanc, zinfandel and a cabernet/merlot blend.