Robert Mondavi: 1913 - 2008

By BILL KISLIUK
Register Editor

Few individuals personify a place in the eyes of the world as much as Robert Gerald Mondavi personified the Napa Valley.

The legendary vintner and champion of the local wine industry died on May 16, 2008, at the age of 94.

Mondavi’s larger-than-life reputation was built on the success of his Oakville winery. He added to the legend in many ways: By being a tireless ambassador for the valley’s grapes and wines; by encouraging and advancing the Napa Valley’s role in the rise of California cuisine and fine dining; with philanthropic donations of eye-popping proportions; by offering personal wisdom or assistance to dozens of other Napa Valley winemakers whose good fortunes are — in many respects — a direct result of Mondavi’s ground-breaking efforts; by playing a critical role in the launch of the Napa Valley Vintners’ amazing Auction Napa Valley.

Mondavi’s passing is also a symbol of changing times in the valley. Several long-time family-owned wineries — Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena among them — have changed hands. Their former owners rose to prominence in the late 1960s and early ‘70s and were part of the makeover of the valley for which Mondavi became famous. Their departure from the stage is a sign that the wine industry here is in for more significant transformation in the coming years.

Robert Mondavi deserves a great deal of credit for Napa Valley’s reputation as an enviable place to live and a wonderful place to visit, for California’s thriving, world-renowned wine industry, and as an example of the American dream — where a son of an immigrant can reach impossibly high and make his dreams come true.

Mondavi was born in a tiny Minnesota town in 1913 and raised in Lodi. He arrived in St. Helena as a young man and convinced his father Cesare to buy Charles Krug Winery. Robert and his brother Peter ran Krug for years, and turmoil in the family prompted Robert to make the move toward independence that would define him.

He opened Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966 and saw the company expand to include Opus One — a partnership with the Rothschild family of France — along with interests in South America and Italy.

All was not roses, however.

The Mondavi family feud over Krug lasted many years and left many scars. Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts that Mondavi launched in Napa in 2001, collapsed into bankruptcy earlier this year and is now in process of liquidating its assets.

In a sense, the Mondavi winery left family hands in 1993, when shares in the business began trading on the NASDAQ. But the 2004 acquisition of Mondavi by beverage giant Constellation Brands marked the end of the line for the family’s role in the winery that made the Napa Valley what it is today.

Mondavi’s sons Michael and Tim continue to make wine here under their own labels, his brother Peter and family soldier on at Krug, and Robert’s widow Margrit remains admirably active in the arts, wine and culinary worlds.

In his 1998 autobiography, “Harvests of Joy,” co-written with Paul Chutkow, Mondavi stated: “I’ve lived and worked among the vineyards of the Napa Valley for 60 years, and yet every single day I remained awed by the beauty of this landscape and by the power and rhythms of nature, by the way vines that are bare in February bring forth grapes that we can harvest in September and turn into fine wine …

“In its essence, I believe that wine holds out to us all the order and wisdom of nature and of God himself, if only we have the patience and faith to pursue all the mysteries and truths waiting inside.”

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