Classic vintner will be missed

Wine Matters

Greg O'Byrne | For The New Mexican

5/20/2008 - 5/21/08

Robert Mondavi, the visionary California winemaker who showed that Napa Valley wines could compete with the best in the world, died in the valley Friday morning. He was 94.

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

In 1937, Mondavi married his high-school sweetheart, Marjorie Declusin, and they had three children — Michael, Marcia and Tim. After World War II until the mid-'60s, the Charles Krug Winery was a family business run by Robert and his younger brother, Peter.

Robert's progressive vision for Napa Valley wines frequently clashed with that of Peter, who was content — like the rest of the valley at the time — to produce common jug wines. According to Robert Mondavi's autobiography, Harvests of Joy, disagreements over the direction of the winery came to a head with his brother in the fall of 1965.

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

A world-class wine region

Robert Mondavi was 52 when he left the family business in 1966 and opened Robert Mondavi Winery, creating a style of wine that over the next decade transformed Napa Valley into one of the top regions of the wine world. From his tireless travels to the world's best wine regions, particularly to Bordeaux, Mondavi was the first in the valley to make wines that championed the use of cold fermentation, stainless-steel tanks and French-oak barrels.

Tim Mondavi said his father "was one of the first to go to see the best, the worst and everything in between in all the different areas. His desire was to ask the questions about why some of the wines were so great and why they got to be that way. He developed friendships with other winemakers and exchanged ideas with many people. Not only did he learn from them, but we shared what we had learned."

Mondavi's confidence in his vision for Napa Valley was rewarded in 1976, when California wines beat some of France's best wines in the famous tasting known as the Judgment of Paris.

Further validating the quality of California wine, Mondavi was the first California vintner to make a joint venture with a prominent European vintner when, in 1979, he teamed up with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux's famous Château Mouton-Rothschild to create Opus One in Napa Valley. Opus One brought together two of the wine world's greatest minds and caught the attention of vintners worldwide. By the end the 1980s, dozens of international firms had established wineries in California.

The rise of a dynasty

Robert Mondavi's first marriage ended in the late '70s, at least in part, he wrote in his autobiography, because of his single-minded pursuit of the wine business. In 1980, Mondavi married Margrit Biever, a native of Switzerland who had worked at the Mondavi winery since the late '60s.

Margrit inspired Robert's love for art and travel. The two donated millions to help fund or start many charitable organizations, including Copia, a Napa Valley center for education and appreciation of food and wine.

By the 1990s, Mondavi had turned over operation of the company to his sons, Tim and Michael, who helped build Robert Mondavi Winery into a public corporation that owned several wineries. An inexpensive line of generic table wines from the Central Valley that evolved into the Woodbridge label provided the company with a steady flow of cash.

With Robert setting the goals and Tim overseeing the winemaking, Robert Mondavi Winery built a reputation for classy Napa Valley cabernets, a trend that now has now been followed by hundreds of smaller Napa wineries. From the mid-'70s, Robert Mondavi's best wine, its Reserve Cabernet, captured the rich exuberant flavors of Napa Valley and was one of the region's most compelling wines, distinctive for a sense of place, suppleness, elegance and an ability to age.

The fall of an empire

Like their father and uncle before them, Tim and Michael Mondavi clashed over management styles. There was more trouble in 2002, when a worldwide grape glut turned the wine market upside down and the lower-priced wines in the Mondavi portfolio faced tough competition from cheaper brands such as California's Two Buck Chuck and Australia's Yellow Tail.

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 left Robert Mondavi in danger of not being able to cover the millions of dollars in gifts he and Margrit had pledged to various organizations.

The family and board of directors scrambled to save the winery. A corporate restructuring in August 2004 boosted the stock but undercut the family's control, ultimately leading to a corporate buyout. By the time the family was bought out, Michael Mondavi, who disagreed with the board's strategy, had already left the company and Tim Mondavi had loosened his ties.

In 2005 there was a heartwarming moment when Robert and Peter Mondavi 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.

A visit to Santa Fe

One of Robert and Margrit Mondavi's trips brought them to Santa Fe in the fall of 2004 for the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta. I recall when Mondavi, a slight man of enormous influence and impeccable taste, walked into the event's Reserve Tasting at the Eldorado Hotel and a hush came over the crowd. Master sommelier Tim Gaiser, who was at the event pouring wine, turned to me and whispered, "My goodness, it's Robert Mondavi — none of us here would have a job in the wine industry if it were not for him."

Success in Napa Valley and for California wine in general would most likely have come eventually, but it wouldn't have started without Robert Mondavi. He was the man.