When Robert Mondavi graduated from Stanford, he followed his father’s encouragement and entered the wine business. Crippled by Prohibition and the Depression, the few Northern California wineries left were struggling. Wine drinkers in this country were, like Mondavi’s parents, mostly immigrants who made their own. Today Napa Valley produces some of the best vintages in the world, thanks in large part to Mondavi’s forceful vision. He was, one observer said, “the godfather of American wines.”
Mondavi, ’36, died May 16 at his home in Yountville, Calif., at 94. He was born in Virginia, Minn. When he was 10, the family moved to Lodi, Calif., where Robert’s Italian father, Cesare Mondavi, worked as a grape wholesaler. After graduating from Stanford, Robert Mondavi worked first for Sunnyhill Winery. But Mondavi—acting on his belief that Northern California wineries could produce top-notch wines—persuaded his parents to buy Charles Krug Winery in 1943. He introduced new technologies and debuted the first tasting rooms while running the winery with his brother, Peter. In the mid-1960s, he built Robert Mondavi Winery, an immense landmark on Highway 29.
A marketing guru, he knew that part of selling wine was making the lifestyle appealing. He was among the first to place wine in context with good food, and decided to make wine from sauvignon blanc (which he renamed fumé blanc) because he knew the fancy name would appeal to customers. His sales skyrocketed.
Success did not come without price. Mondavi had a legendary falling-out with and decades-long estrangement from Peter (they eventually reconciled), and divorced his first wife, Marjorie Declusin, after nearly 40 years. In 1980, Mondavi married a former employee, Margrit Biever.
In 2004, the Mondavi family sold its winery to Constellation Brands for $1.03 billion, but his children carry on in the business. In 2007, he was the only living honoree in the inaugural class of the Vintners Hall of Fame. He was known for many philanthropic gifts, notably $35 million to UC-Davis for a performing arts complex and a science center.
Four decades after Mondavi’s arrival in Napa Valley, when French judges picked American wines (many made by Mondavi protégés) over French ones in a blind taste test, Mondavi knew he had helped to cement the place of American wines on the world stage.
Survivors: his wife, Margrit; two sons, Michael and Timothy; one daughter, Marcia; nine grandchildren, including Caitlin Borger, ’06; and his brother, Peter, ’36.
