[Deathwatch] Robert Mondavi, vintner, 94

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Calif. wine patriarch Robert Mondavi dead at 94

By MICHELLE LOCKE

Robert Mondavi, the vintner who built his career and helped an iconic
Northern California industry blossom by insisting that Napa Valley
wines can compete with the best in the world, died in the valley
Friday. He was 94.

Mondavi died peacefully at his home in Yountville, Robert Mondavi
Winery spokeswoman Mia Malm said.

"It is hard to imagine anyone having more of a lasting impact on
California's $20 billion-a-year wine industry than Robert Mondavi,"
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. Mondavi, said the
governor, was "a tireless entrepreneur who transformed how the world
felt about California wine, and an unforgettable personality to
everyone who knew him."

Mondavi was 52 and a winemaking veteran in 1966, when he opened the
winery that would help turn the Napa Valley into a world center of the
industry. Clashes with a brother that included a fistfight led him to
break from the family business to carry out his ambitious plans with
borrowed money.

When Mondavi opened his winery, California was still primarily known
for cheap jug wines. But he set out to change that, championing use of
cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, all
commonplace in the industry today. He introduced blind tastings in Napa
Valley, putting his wines up against French vintages, a bold move.

His confidence was rewarded in 1976 when California wines beat some
well-known French vintages in the famous tasting known as the Judgment
of Paris.

"He had the single greatest influence in this country with respect to
high quality wine and its place at the table," wine critic Robert
Parker wrote in a chat room posting on his Web site Friday. He called
Mondavi "an exceptional man....a true pioneer...a legendary
pathfinder.....and I feel so priviledged to have known him...a sad
day...but also one to pay homage to his enormous contributions."

Always convinced that California wines could compete with the European
greats, Mondavi engaged in the first French-American wine venture when
he formed a limited partnership with the legendary French vintner Baron
Philippe de Rothschild to grow and make the ultra-premium Opus One at
Oakville. The venture's first vintage was in 1979.

The success of the Mondavi winery allowed him to donate tens of
millions of dollars to charity, but a wine glut and intense competition
gradually cost his family control of the business. In 2004, the company
accepted a buyout worth $1.3 billion from Fairport, N.Y.-based
Constellation Brands.

Mondavi was an enthusiastic ambassador for wine ? especially California
wine ? and traveled the world into his 90s promoting the health,
cultural and social benefits of its moderate consumption.

"He had an amazing life," said Robert C. Koch, president and CEO of the
San Francisco-based Wine Institute. "He was a major driving force and
an incredible promoter for California wine and the Napa Valley."

Born in Virginia, Minn., Mondavi got an economics degree from Stanford
University in the 1930s and went to work at the Charles Krug Winery,
which his Italian-born parents had bought after moving to California
from Minnesota.

He married his high school sweetheart, Marjorie Declusin, in 1937, and
they had three children, Michael, Marcia and Tim.

For 20 years, the winery was a family business. But Robert clashed
frequently with his younger brother, Peter, who had a more conservative
approach the business. According to Robert Mondavi's autobiography
"Harvests of Joy," matters came to a head with a November 1965
fistfight.

"When it was all over, there were no apologies and no handshake," wrote
Robert Mondavi.

In the late 1970s, Mondavi's first marriage ended; in his autobiography
he wrote that his single-minded pursuit of the wine business was partly
to blame. In 1980, he married a second time, to Margrit Biever, a
native of Switzerland who had worked at the Mondavi winery since the
late '60s.

By the mid-1990s, Mondavi had turned over operation of the company to
his sons. But like their father and uncle before them, Tim and Michael
clashed over management styles.

More troubles emerged as a grape glut soured the wine market in 2002
and lower-priced wines in the Mondavi portfolio faced tough competition
from cheaper Australian imports and domestic brands like California's
Two Buck Chuck.

Also a problem were the millions in charitable donations Mondavi and
Margrit had pledged, including helping found Copia, The American Center
for Wine, Food and the Arts, in Napa and giving $35 million to the
University of California, Davis.

In her 2007 book, "The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an
American Wine Dynasty," author Julia Flynn Siler wrote that declining
stock prices later left Mondavi in danger of not being able to cover
the millions in gifts he and Margrit had promised.

A corporate restructuring in August 2004 boosted the stock price, but
undercut the family's control of the company. By time it was bought
out, Michael Mondavi, who disagreed with the board strategy, had
already left the company, and Tim Mondavi had loosened ties.

Later there was a bittersweet family moment when Robert and Peter
Mondavi, aided by members of the younger generation, made wine together
for the first time in 40 years. Using a 50-50 split of grapes from
Robert Mondavi and Peter Mondavi family vineyards, the brothers made
one barrel of a cabernet blend that sold for $401,000 at the 2005 Napa
Valley wine auction.

The auction lot was called "Ancora Una Volta," or "Once Again."

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary