Wine legend Mondavi dies at 94 - Beer, Wine, Homebrew, and Everything Fermentable!

Wine legend Mondavi dies at 94

(2 votes)

Written by Joan Spiess

Sunday, 18 May 2008

The iconic wine legend Robert Mondavi passed away this week.

The wine industry lost a legend this week when Robert Mondavi, 94, died peacefully aon May 16, 2008 at his Napa Valley home. He was survived by his second wife, Margrit Biever, and three sons from his first marriage.

“Wine to me is passion. It’s family and friends. It’s warmth of heart and generosity of spirit.” - Robert Mondavi

Born to Italian immigrants in 1913, Robert Gerald Mondavi was born in Virginia, Minnesota. The Mondavi family later moved to Lodi, California, where his father, Cesare, established a successful business packing and shipping grapes to the east coast primarily for home winemaking. Mondavi graduated from Stanford University in 1937 with a degree in economics and business administration, as well as a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.

After a brief stint running a winery with his brothers, a bitter disagreement with his younger brother forced Mondavi to leave the family business to start anew. In 1966, he founded the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley with the goal of producing wines that would rival the finest wines of Europe.

One of his unexpected successes was a dry oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc, unpopular in California at the time, called Fumé Blanc- now known to by synonymous for Sauvignon Blanc. Another memorable wine is the Robert Mondavi Winery’s Sauvignon Cabernet which opened the world's eyes to the potential of the Napa Valley.

In the mid 1990’s Mondavi passed his successful, world-class winery to his sons. However, sibling competitiveness plagued the second generation of Mondavi winemakers leading to a bitter disagreement and decision to emphasize the lesser expensive Mondavi wines over premium fine wine. Mondavi later expressed his regret and criticism for his sons’ lack of judgment tainting the Mondavi image.

In 2004 the Robert Mondavi Winery was bought by Constellation Brand. Mondavi spent much of the next four years traveling the world as an ambassador for wine.

Robert Mondavi dies at 94

In March of 2007 Robert Mondavi was nominated and inducted into the Vintners Hall of Fame by the Culinary Institute of America. He was also inducted later in 2007 to the California Hall of Fame by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.

Comments

Add New

Write comment

Name:

Email:

Website:

Title:

UBBCode: