Mentor, friend, and above all, ambassador. Those are just a few of the roles Robert Mondavi played as he led a movement that turned a sleepy farming valley north of San Francisco into one of the premiere wine regions of the world.

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“His legacy is the Napa Valley,” said Clay Gregory, a former general manager at Robert Mondavi Winery. “He was the one who started the modern era of winemaking in California and Napa Valley. He had the vision and was determined. There were other people who made good wines but he was convinced he was going to make among the best wines the world. ... He aimed at a much higher place than anyone at the time.”

Gregory, who worked for Mondavi for 14 years and is now president of Jackson Family Wines in Santa Rosa, added, “He was the most incredible ambassador for wine that ever existed.”  Mondavi’s enthusiasm about wine and California and Napa Valley wine was “infectious,” especially to his employees.

“He was gracious to every single person he ran into. It was just the way he was.”

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“We lost our leader,” said fellow philanthropist and vintner Bob Trinchero, of Trinchero Family Estates. “I can’t think of anyone who’s done more for Napa Valley wine or the California wine industry. No one’s worked harder or longer.”

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“Robert Mondavi was the head of the Napa Valley wine community’s extended family — this large, crazy, yet tight-knit and dedicated group of people who would do anything to help each other,” wrote Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners. “That’s one of the many important lessons Mr. Mondavi taught us: to always be there to help a neighbor, a friend, our community or beyond.”

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“He was my mentor,” said Geneviève Janssens, long-time winemaker at Robert Mondavi Winery. “He was the reason I moved from France to the Napa Valley. He left an incredible legacy for all of us. He worked night and day to promote his vision, his passion and his dream, and we are living his dream.”

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Napa restaurateur Greg Cole first met Mondavi at a Napa restaurant about 20 years ago, and today hangs an eye-catching portrait of Mondavi on the wall of Celadon, one of his restaurants. “When he came in, it wasn’t all about him or the Robert Mondavi Winery. It was about Napa Valley and Americans enjoying wine, learning to make wine part of our meals. He did all kinds of things: the concert series, art displays, the UC Davis Performing Arts Center. Sort of the whole package, just an amazing man.”

Cole found Mondavi to be an inspiration. “I opened Celadon when I was in my mid-30s and I thought I was starting too old, but Mondavi proved that it didn’t matter how old you are. He started the Mondavi Winery at 52. You don’t have to start at 28 to be successful.”

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“A beautiful love story has lost one of its partners,” declared Virginia Van Asperen, a close friend of the Mondavis who said she is as close as a sister to Margrit. “Bob Mondavi’s death leaves our Margrit to carry on his great spirit for living. No two people have blended their talents, their energy and their zest for life as generously as Bob and Margrit.”

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“He opened roads for Napa,” Mike Grgich of Grgich Hills Cellar, who got his start in the U.S. with Mondavi. “He was full of energy and innovation. At the same time he was a great human. When I needed anything I could go to him. He affected my life even more than my father. I feel like I’ve lost my father. I lift my beret to him and wish that he has found the paradise he deserves.”

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Vic Motto, wine industry advisor and founder of the St. Helena consultancy Motto, Kryla Fisher, felt Mondavi’s energy as well.

“I don’t think I ever spent time with him that I didn’t come out of a meeting feeling energized,” Motto said. “He was an optimist in a pragmatic way ... He was the guy at the top of the hill waving the flag saying ‘Come on,’ while everyone else was huffing and puffing.’ He was a great leader of a company, an industry and an idea that took hold.”

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Herb Schmidt worked for Robert Mondavi Winery for 25 years and was very close to Mondavi, his immediate family and winery family.

“He treated employees like friends. They were part of his vision, and he couldn’t have done it without them. And that’s the way he felt,” said Schmidt.

“The great leaders and pioneers are now passing away, Louis Martini, Jack Davies and now Mr. Mondavi,” he said. “There are some people in the community who actually expected him to live forever. But you know what, nothing lasts forever.”

“This is a huge loss,” said Schmidt. “Life will go on, but it’s a difficult day for sure.”

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“Everybody knew it was coming, but even when it happens it’s sad,” said Andy Beckstoffer, owner of Beckstoffer Vineyards. “Hopefully he found some peace. This is just a lighting bolt in terms of the changing of the guard.”

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Bob Mueller, founder of McKenzie-Mueller Vineyards and Winery, began working at Robert Mondavi Winery as a cellar employee in 1974. With the help of Robert Mondavi, he learned the art of winemaking.

“Mondavi was a great place to work, a great place to learn and it was also a great place for people in the wine industry to visit,” he said.

Mondavi’s death, he said, is “certainly a great loss, there is no question about that. But he has a lot of ideas living with so many people.”

Long-time friend and legal advisor Frank Farella recalled that Mondavi’s ebullient spirit transcended cultural and other barriers.

“Robert and Agustin Huneeus and our spouses took several trips together, and one was in the wilds of the southern Chile seas,” he said. “We came upon this little island, and we pulled in on our small boat. We took a hike and came across this village, this hamlet. There was a bar there and Bob and Agustin and I went into the bar. Robert toasted everybody, all the natives who had never seen anyone like us.”

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As a little girl growing up in the Napa Valley, Robin Lail would often see Robert Mondavi at her family’s home. Lail’s father, John Daniel Jr., the leader of the venerable Inglenook Winery, would play cards with Mondavi and discuss wine wisdom, she said.

“He was my father’s protégé,” she said.

When it was time for Lail to take over for her father, she turned to Mondavi for advice.

“He influenced me in so many ways,” she said. “He taught me the value of sharing what I know with other people. He taught me an enormous amount about the wine business. He introduced me in some depth to the world of wine in Europe, which had a huge energizing effect on me. I loved him very much as did so many people. There will be no replication, he was truly a leader.

“I think that people will consider him for a very long time to come as the brightest star in the heavens of wine.”

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Eileen Fredrikson, who runs the long-respected wine industry consulting firm Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, said  “It wasn’t just rhetoric about California wines being equal to those of the world — he went about doing it.”

Mondavi, she said, was the first California vintner to buy space at the prestigious Vin Expo, a gathering of winemakers in Bordeaux, France. She recalled, several years later, watching Mondavi at his pavilion. “Everywhere he went he was such a recognizable person. At the Mondavi pavilion, I watched every famous wine person in the world come by to pay their respects to Bob. His was a life well lived.”

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Mondavi was “one of the great pioneers, and a tireless promoter and educator for Napa Valley and all California wine,” declared Robert P. Koch, president and CEO of the 1,100-member Wine Institute. Mondavi served as chairman of the Wine Institute from 1962 to 1964.

“He was instrumental in helping make wine a part of everyday life, that wine would be seen as part of a healthy lifestyle,” said Koch.

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“He wasn’t just about wine,” said the valley’s celebrated chef and restaurateur, Thomas Keller. “He brought legitimacy to the broader hospitality industry. He reminded us of the importance of the social aspect of sitting down together to enjoy great wine and food.”

Keller, creator of Yountville’s French Laundry, Bouchon and Ad Hoc, recently lost his father, and reflected on that loss as well as the passing of Julia Child in 2004 and now Mondavi. “These were extraordinary Americans who had a vision and pursued it with such dedication. They laid a foundation for the  rest of us. And I was blessed to have gotten to know Mr. Mondavi.”

Walter Raymond, of Raymond Vineyards, said Mondavi’s death marks “the end of an era. His are big shoes to be filled — they won’t be filled. He was definitely leading the parade.”

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“He was a lighthouse for all of us,” said Duckhorn Wine Company’s Dan Duckhorn. “We followed his light. By leading the way, he set an example and paved the way for all of us that followed to make Napa Valley what it is today.”

Register staffers L. Pierce Carson, Jennifer Huffman, Diane Montanez, Sasha Paulsen and Carlos Villatoro contributed to this story.