Dear Napa Valley Mustard Festival Guests,

The Marketplace at Robert Mondavi Winery was a wonderful event featuring food, wine, music and art in the winery's beautiful and varied spaces on March 14 and 15. It was an adventure to discover Winery Chef Jeff Mosher serving superb cuisine and house made mustard paired with Robert Mondavi vintages in the Spotlight room, with classical music and light jazz; two floors of tasting, art and products with a jazz lounge in the To Kalon Cellar; mustard, gourmet products, fine cuisine, and BBQ in the crush pad tent with blues and boogie woogie; food, wine, and fine art with classical piano in the Vineyard Room; fantastic cuisine and a variety of performances on the Vineyard Room patio; and Italian food with accordion music in the winery's center just outside the retail room. Guests did not mind waiting in line for Filipi's aromatic melt-in-your-mouth pizza! On Saturday, guests also enjoyed KGO Newstalk AM810 and Martha Stewart Living Radio broadcasts.

Magrit Biever Mondavi, Gene Burns, and Francis Ford Coppola at The Marketplace

Guests flocked to Saturday's sun drenched event in unexpected numbers, while Sunday was mellow and less crowded with occasional sprinkles. We offer our sincere apologies to Saturday attendees for much longer than expected waits for shuttles, and appreciate your patience. Sunday's transportation flowed smoothly. In past years, attendance has been most often equally balanced between the two days, while this year an estimated two thirds of our guests opted to attend on Saturday. We feel that this phenomenon was most likely due to predictions of sunshine on Saturday and rain on Sunday. We were taken by surprise not only by the attendance, but by slower that usual traffic on Highway 29 in March, and want to insure you that Robert Mondavi Winery was in no way at fault for the long waits. The winery staff was in fact extremely hospitable and helpful. Hot coffee and hors d'oeuvres at the end of the day for those awaiting the return shuttles were just one of the obvious ways in which they care for guests at Robert Mondavi Winery.

Tom Finch of Filippi's Pizza Grotto at The Marketplace

We attribute the success of this year's Napa Valley Mustard Festival, a non-profit community service organization, in large part to Robert Mondavi Winery - due to circumstances and the need for a new location for The Marketplace event, the winery's generously made it possible for the Season of Events to continue intact.

The Festival's Grand Finale Event takes place this coming weekend at Mumm Napa. We are offering two Napa Valley Mustard Festival Grand Finale Specials, which you can view on line at mustardfestival.org - or feel free to call us at 707-938-1133.

We hope to see you at The Mumm Napa Photo Finish this weekend, Saturday March 28. If you cannot make it, you can still enter to win our American Airlines trip to Europe Drawing, which takes place at Saturday's event, and bid on our Le Grand Diner auction lot until May 1.

Until the weekend - or next year, with warm regards,

Summers-McCann Public Relations, Napa Valley Mustard Festival Producer
and The Napa Valley Mustard Festival Board of Directors

Mumm Napa hosting The Mumm Napa Photo Finish