The vintners love curiosity, when visitors probe deeper than others. No one asks these questions, Carissa Mondavi, a fourth-generation vintner from Continuum Estate and granddaughter of California wine pioneer Robert Mondavi, thinks to herself. The Cavaliers are staying for just an hour and a half, but throughout, as winemakers explain the step-by-step process of how wine comes to be, players lob a stream of questions - about wines produced on mountains versus those in the valley, what practices are best to maintain a healthy cellar, how long to age certain wines, how to keep fermentation tanks clean, why some wines are $15, some $1,500. Classic J.R.Įventually, the players head below to the cellar, where 1,200-gallon oak barrels line stone walls built before Prohibition. Smith, sitting on a couch against a back wall, raises his hand. The players sip and are asked for their thoughts. Mayacamas winemaker Andy Erickson introduces the chardonnay by describing how proud he is that it's not a typical Napa Valley chardonnay, not over-the-top with buttery-tasting notes. " James says, holding the glass near Osman, but Osman declines. James tries to tempt rookie forward Cedi Osman, who, along with some of the other rookies, isn't into wine just yet. They playfully sneak more glasses of wine. Now, after the champagne toast, players gather beside fermentation tanks before moving next door to a spacious living room, where glasses of 2015 chardonnay and 2013 cabernet dot a heavy wooden table. No groups, that is, until today, a clear, brisk late-December Thursday - two days before James' 33rd birthday - when the Cavaliers arrive for a midseason two-day Napa getaway.Īt Mayacamas, organizers had rushed to prepare for the Cavaliers, hauling away burned rubble in huge bins. Mayacamas hadn't hosted any groups since that October blaze. "It's a miracle," says Mayacamas assistant winemaker Braiden Albrecht. But somehow the fire had devoured only one of the buildings, a 5,000-square-foot, two-story Italian villa-style structure used for hospitality and dining. Millions in damage was caused, though the true toll will be tallied when it becomes clear which vines can still bud in the spring. When staffers returned weeks later, they saw how the flames had crept to the edge of the three main buildings, licked up their sides, leaving deep black scars near the foundation. Workers evacuated as flames neared the winery, not knowing what - if anything - would survive. Winds swept it along the edges of and into Mayacamas' vineyards, the intense heat threatening dormant vines harvested not long before. The fire, when it came, had raced in from the west, feeding on dry underbrush, roaring over the hills. Not many of the Cavs have been here, but LeBron James has, and he recognizes that the area where he's standing now, the small clearing, once belonged to a building that is no more. This is Mayacamas, one of Napa Valley's most iconic wineries. Burned hillsides, stippled with the black skeletons of trees, loom ominous. Nearby, all around the property, lies charred earth. They clink flutes of 2006 Dom Pérignon in toast. ![]() About 60 members of the franchise gather near tables covered in white cloth, sitting atop cedar bark spread across a small clearing. Finally, a metal gate appears, a large "M" at its center, and soon the Cleveland Cavaliers pour out of the buses. The river of black shuttle buses negotiates sharp switchbacks, bouncing upward along miles of uneven pavement that fades into dirt, from two lanes to one, climbing beneath oak forest that blocks out the morning light. ![]() ![]() A version of this story appears in GOLD RUSH: powered by espnW, a special collaboration with ESPN The Magazine for its Feb.
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