Mondavi Retrospective

For most who enjoy drinking wine they also enjoy learning about the subject more than one who might indulge in other alcoholic beverages; which would explain the number of classes on wine, books, magazines and websites on the subject.

And with the recent passing of Robert Mondavi, a pioneer in the wine world, a required reading for anyone looking to learn the history of this wine, is “The House of Mondavi” by Julia Flynn Siler.

The book, published by Gotham Books, discusses the life of the Mondavi family from the earliest days in 1906 when Robert Mondavi’s father settled in America to when the family first relocated to California and his father purchased the Charles Krug Winery. The book follows Robert Mondavi to the opening of his own winery in the 1960s all the way through to the selling of the company in 2004 to Constellation Brands for a buyout worth $1.3 billion.

The House of Mondavi leaves no stone unturned depicting in great detail the perpetual battles Robert Mondavi constantly had with his younger brother, Peter. It portrays a man, who while he was a passionate about wine and constantly looking to make it a part of culture and society the way Europeans embraced it, it also at the same time created quite a battlefield between his family that was duplicated by Robert Mondavi’s own two sons who had differentiating styles when it came to wine.

It’s hard to imagine anyone who had a bigger impact on the wine world, let alone any one subject than Robert Mondavi. Every time you venture to a winery for a tasting you can basically thank him. Every time you hear about the health benefits of wine you can thank him as well. He was an ambassador to the wine world and was never satisfied with what he had. He always wanted to learn more traveling to Europe and utilizing their techniques bringing them over to the United States. Because of his quest for knowledge he changed the way people not only saw wine but created it. At one time, 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 was very proud of his wines and put them up against French vintages, a bold move at the time and his winery became known as a starting point for many big name winemakers such as Warren Winarski from Stag’s Leap.

Mondavi also 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.

According to Siler’s book, Mondavi was very generous with the money he made in the wine world giving more than charitable donations to Copia, The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa and giving $35 million to the University of California, Davis. However, one could say that his donations were beyond generous, almost done to show off and spite family members. His decision to go public with Mondavi Wine and his generosity with his wealth ended up costing him the company because as Mondavi became a less and less popular brand for several years and with money supply dwindling the donations he made probably couldn’t have been covered if the business wasn’t sold.

While reading House of Mondavi I suppose it’s easy for one not to understand why the two brothers couldn’t get along, but as I read I tried to imagine myself working in the wine industry with my own brother. While we get along very well, our differences would most likely lead to the same problems between The Mondavi brothers. I make wine at home with my father, obviously not on the level of Mondavi and not even being close to the level of being able to sell what we make. During the time from beginning of fermentation to bottling we get into little, petty squabbles over what direction we want.

However, despite the turbulent relationship there was a happy ending for the family when Robert and Peter, assisted 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."