HI,
I have a question regarding Mondavi Reserve 1997. I have already bought a case of Mondavi Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 1997. I thought this is Reserve but when I opened a case and looked at the label there is not description as “RESERVE” it;s only written " Aged in oak barrels for 18 months" and there is also stamp on label " Napa Valley Barrel Aged Reserve".
Could you please clarify me whether this is different label for Resreve OR this is cmopletly different wine than Mondavi Reserve?
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This is a different wine than the Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve. The “true” Reserve has the word “Reserve” prominently on the front label between the “Cabernet Sauvignon” and the “Robert Mondavi Winery”. Most of the photos for this wine on CT are correct, but there is at least one photo of the same label as your wine, and that is not correct.
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I haven’t had it in 10-15 years. I thought it was a wonderful wine. It would be interesting to revisit.
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Did you pay for the reserve bottling?
I think it is the Reserve wine, but a label used for bottles exported to different countries markets I’m guessing.
Yep, it was sold by solid reliable wine merchant from UK as Mondavi Reserve
I know how looks like standard label for Mondavi Reserve, I had 1994 and 1995 vintages. But I could’t find any information anywhere that Mondavi in 1997 producent two diffrent wines on Reserve category. So my guess is that this may be Reserve but for a reason, has got different label. For sure this is not regular bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. Maybe someone here can explain this mistery. I bought this on UK, one shop in Germany offers this wine with the same label.
You may be right but I need confirnation of this guess. On orginal cartoon box for 6 pack, it is written " Reserve 1997" and date of packaging/ shipment from winery: 7/26/99
Have you tried asking the winery?
I tried to contact with Winery via their Facebook/ Messenger profile but nobody response. They don’t care about " ancient" vintages as their marketing goal is to sell as much as possible current releases
There is a note about the label at the bottom of the page indicating for export
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It feels like if you called and asked around, you might find someone who knows or could find out? But i don’t know and it’s up to you.
Best wishes, report back whatever you find out.
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The winery itself is closed for renovations, however, they have multiple options to contact them, including live chat, on the website. It is worth a shot! 
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Well, it may be the solution of this mistery however I bought a few times in Europe Mondavi Reserve from 1994 & 1995 which have let say “US market” label with designation RESERVE in the middle of the label.
I wonder why some Mondavi Reserve in Europe have standard label ( as for US market) and some have different for export markets.
Here is the label of Reserve 1994 which I bought 3 years ago in wineshop in Belgium
Thank you all Gents for kind response
Mostly I’m very curious how the wine shows. This was an era when Tim Mondavi was making wines following his own vision, refusing to make wines to please Parker…and Parker shredded him for it in reviews, calling the wines thin and weedy. I’ve not had any 90s era Mondavi cabs but suspect they have aged well since they were - supposedly - not made in ooze monster style and perhaps even in the more balanced style some strive for today.
When I open first bottles of 1997 I will post TN here.
2 bottles of 1995 which I had 10 years ago were wonderful ( 94-95 pts) but 1994 which I had 2 years ago was even great ( 96pts for me).
Regarding Parker’s scores, I think quite opposite. According to Robert Parker Mondavi Wines , especially top cuve - Cabernet Sauvignon Resere from period of 1990-1997 were truly profound and highly acclaimed.
High Parker scores were one of the reasons why I interested in Mondavi Reserve from possibly greatest Napa period of 1990-97.
It’s true that Parker gave lower notes for Mondavi Reserve for 1998-1999-2000 but these vintages were clearly inferior for all Napa producers than for exmaple 1997 or earlier.
So In my opinion Tim Mondavi was unnecessarily offended by Parker lower scores for wines from medicore vintages.
I’ll respectfully disagree with you on that statement. I find 1999 to be an excellent vintage with balance and longevity. 1998 and 2000 sometimes overdelivered for me in a cool, more austere style that I enjoy.
Many 1997s were overripe, thus the critical praise at the time, but then they haven’t aged very well. Though I would guess Mondavi Reserve would not be one of the ones that got overblown from that vintage?
I’ve had a decent number of 1990s Mondavi Reserve cabs. They’re generally very good, very correct, no big faults. If there is a downside, they don’t especially “stand out” or “pop,” but I think that’s also a blessing that they were staying in a good lane rather than trying to get some super high score or become a trophy wine.
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I could certainly have the vintages mixed up where this happened, but this wasn’t an issue of the 98 or 00 Napa vintages that were rainy and cool, where many wines across the board got lower scores. Parker went out of his way in one set of reviews to state his disappointment with Tim’s winemaking approach, something to the effect that he was being dogmatic and not making proper use of the materials CA presented him, etc. I don’t subscribe to the WA anymore so can’t search the database nor am I going to dig out paper copies from the 90s or early 00s, but Parker absolutely shit on Mondavi’s winemaking at the time and if Tim was offended, it would have been pretty justified based on how harsh Parker was.