
Last Wednesday I toured
Robert Mondavi Winery’s famed
To Kalon Vineyard with Winemaker Gustavo Gonzalez and Addison Kavish, a young emerging filmmaker.
Addison was there to capture part of the
Experience of Art in film.
Gustavo has been a Winemaker for
Robert Mondavi for over sixteen years and I wanted his particular experienced perspective before I began this August series.
I like to tour the vineyard with those who work the land. They're connected to it.
As we toured the vineyard we came to an unruly block of cabernet vines that Jani DiCarlo of the
To Kalon Circle told me would come along in August.
My commission calendar allowed for me to create this series during the latter half of this month, August. So the timing was perfect.
August is when Jani mentioned that the unruly jungle like cabernet vines would be reaching high into the sky.
I had a moment of serendipity when I discovered that this block of vines that I was most drawn to stands in front of the Yountville Carmelite Monastery hermitage.
I stayed in the
Carmelite hermitage when I painted a series of
Tim Mondavi’s Continuum Estate Vineyards for patrons Tom and Sandi Moran of Naples, Florida.
Tim Mondavi’s vines overlook the spot where we were standing on valley floor from the noted
Pritchard Hill. He pointed out the
Carmelite Monastery when I toured his vineyard last year.
This afternoon I’ll return to
To Kalon to begin a series of studies in oil during the Golden Hour. The time before sunset when the light is the most saturated and the shadows reach their final length.