The Wine Blokes

Robert Mondavi of Napa Valley, the founder of the modern US fine wine industry and a global symbol of American wine and food, passed away the morning of May 16, 2008. He was 94. The Mondavi family stated that the legendary vintner died peacefully at his home in Napa Valley. In tribute to this colossus of wine, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, said, “It is hard to imagine anyone having more of a lasting impact on California’s £20bn-a-year wine industry than Robert Mondavi.”

Mondavi’s parents, Cesare and Rosa Mondavi, were Italian sharecroppers who emigrated to Minnesota in 1908. As Prohibition was rolled-out, the family decamped to Lodi in California to purchase grapes for Italian home winemakers of the Midwest and East Coast. Mondavi later said of his mother:

My mother, Rosa, taught me the power of love and the virtues of hard work, strong family ties, an open heart, a generous spirit and fine home cooking enjoyed with good wine around the communal table.

Throughout “the hated Volstead Act”, the young Robert helped his father make wine at home in the basement. He studied business and chemistry, and after graduating from Stanford University aged 23, Mondavi started work at Sunnyhill, subsequently renamed Sunny St Helena Winery. “I was fortunate to find a job I loved,” he claimed, “and if you find a job you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” Suffice to say, Mondavi was a workaholic.

With the acquisition of Charles Krug at Robert’s insistence, the Mondavi family moved from bulk production of dessert wines in the warm San Joaquin Valley to drier table wines in the relatively cool Napa Valley. Robert Mondavi was responsible for management and PR, his brother Peter for the winemaking side. One of the Mondavi brothers’ innovations was the use of stainless steel coils in wooden fermenters to achieve greater freshness and fruitiness in white wines, a practice that was to become widespread.

The threat of growing imports from overseas led Mondavi to suggest an association of quality producers that in turn led to the formation of the Premium Wine Producers of California in 1955. On a trip to the vineyards of Europe in 1962, Mondavi’s saw the limitations of the California wine industry of the day, as well as its potential. Upon his return, he immediately started to import oak to the United States.

After clashing with his brother Peter, Mondavi split from Charles Krug and formed Robert Mondavi Winery at age 53. Mondavi became the first to use stainless steel, temperature-controlled tanks for fermentation in Napa Valley, developed varietal wines based on European premium grape varieties, pioneered “Fumé Blanc”, an oak-aged sauvignon, in 1968, and, thanks to the use of ageing in new French oak barrels, launched the first Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon in 1971.

Michael, Tim and Marcia, Mondavi’s children, joined him in the business in the 1970s, a turbulent emotional period for Mondavi, who divorced his devoted first wife, Marge and in 1980 married an employee, Margrit Biever. Margrit was to help him with the expansion of wine tours, tastings, seminars, chefs’ programmes and, later, in his devotion to philanthropy and the arts.

In 1979, Mondavi set up an audacious joint venture with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Mouton Rothschild. Rothschild had pulled strings to get Mouton Rothschild elevated to First Growth status in 1973, the only person ever to achieve a change to the seemingly immutable Bordeaux classification of 1855. Together, they assumed they could create California’s first First Growth. The resulting Opus One winery cost $29m to build but also set a world record case price for California wine at £24,000 during the first ever Napa Valley Wine Auction which Mondavi and Magrit founded with local support.

In face of the neo-prohibitionist threat which saw a sharp downturn in wine consumption in the 1980s, Mondavi developed his “Mission Program” in 1986, defending wine as part of a civilised way of life:

If wine were a prescription we would prescribe two glasses with each meal because: it enhances food, it reduces stress, it encourages friendship and it kindles romance. In moderation, it helps digestion, it protects the heart, it promotes good health and it improves our disposition. However, if abused, it is unsafe, potentially dangerous and decidedly uncivilised.

In his eighties, Mondavi continued to create further joint ventures. Continuing expansion led him to float on the Nasdaq exchange in 1993, a move which eventually enabled him to transfer the running of the company to his two sons.

Family squabbles led to the demise of the family business and the sale of the winery to the global wine conglomerate Constellation in 2004. Nevertheless, Robert was still proud of his achievements. Richard Sands, Chairman of Constellation Wines said of him:

Robert Mondavi was unique in a very special way. He had a vision about the potential for developing great California wines. Robert was a pioneer who acted on his vision and was both passionate and relentless in his pursuit of ever-better wines, especially from the Napa Valley.

Robert remained an active ambassador for the winery into his nineties, together with his wife, Margrit. He passed away peacefully at the age of 94.