Robert Mondavi’s Contribution to Wine
A Tribute by Bruce Heye
June, 2008
 On
May 16 the wine world lost the most important individual in the American
wine business. Robert Mondavi (1914-2008) was born into the wine business
when his Italian immigrant father moved his family to Lodi, California in
the early 1920s to work in the wine business, eventually buying the
Charles Krug Winery in the Napa Valley. Robert knew how to produce wines,
but his specialty was marketing. Charles Krug made mostly inexpensive
wine, and Robert was always pushing to raise the quality of their wines.
His aggressive personality led to a fight with his brother Peter in the
family kitchen that, at the age of 52, got him fired from the only job
he’d ever had.
Unemployed and with very little
financial resources of his own, he took the risk of purchasing property
across the road from Krug and building one of the first new wineries in
Napa since Prohibition was repealed. Of course, it had to be a show place,
and it was, setting the standard for future wineries to emulate. He
designed the winery to be tourist-friendly and started wine tourism, which
was not really being done at the time.
Mondavi's first wines were produced at
other wineries in the area, but the 1967 harvest was done at the new
Mondavi winery. As a visionary he worked tirelessly to promote the wines
of California, believing that raising the quality of wine and an awareness
of that quality would benefit everyone. And he succeeded like no one
else.
While producing some of the finest
wines in California, he also was always looking for better ways to produce
his wines and insisted on trying new methods of production. One of his
most successful ideas was a 50-50 joint venture in 1980 with Baron
Philippe de Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild. They
opened
the Opus One Winery, which combined the expertise of these two dominant
figures in the wine world. Other joint ventures followed in Italy and
Chile, and the Mondavi name was known worldwide.
Perhaps his biggest move, which would
lead to the company’s downfall,
 was Robert's decision to go public in
1993. This reaped large financial rewards for the family. However, the
stock market doesn’t appreciate the demands of the wine business and
Robert, and his two sons, tried to meet market expectations while rapidly
expanding the business. At Robert’s advancing age, he was turning more of
the management responsibilities over to his sons, and the business and
quality of their wines suffered. In 2004 the Robert Mondavi Winery was
purchased by Constellation Brands, which then became the largest wine
producer in the world.
Robert Mondavi was the champion of all
of the wine industry and his later years were spent as an ambassador to
the world. He continued to make appearances until the last few months of
his life. He was a benefactor to the University of California at Davis
which named their wine center after him. He and Julia Child spearheaded
the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in downtown Napa. He even
helped produce a limited-release wine with his brother Peter who survived
him. They sold their blended wines at charity auctions. Perhaps one of his
most lasting achievements was the large number of outstanding winemakers
who worked at his winery and then moved on to become the leaders of
today’s California wine scene. His legacy will last as long as wine is
produced in our country.
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