A Prominent Pioneer Passes Away

[Roy Hersh]

I only met Robert Mondavi once, as I was invited to his 85th birthday party and had the pleasure to sit across from he and his charming wife Magritte. I brought along a book he had written about his early days in Napa and a photographer took a picture of me with both of them after he signed my copy of the book. I was impressed that he cared enough to ask me some questions about my involvement in wine and what kind I enjoyed, etc.

His book provided some excellent life lessons and shared many of his own insights into wine, the early days of his family's involvement in Napa, as well as the importance of food and wine pairing etc. Robert Mondayi lived a long life (94 yo) and is one of the most respected pioneer's of Napa Valley's food and wine scene and is possibly the individual most responsible for Napa becoming a wine destination spot and renowned region. Today we've lost another great American wine icon.

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Featu ... 17,00.html

[Andy Velebil]

A sad day indeed. He was such the pioneer....

[Eric Ifune]

I just saw this as well.
I'm going to open a Mondavi 74 cabernet in his honor.

[Richard Henderson]

The Mondavi's sent a son Michael, to Fort Worth when we had a major wine auction for a charity in the 90's. They always supported such efforts. While I like their reserves, I think Mondavi was always trying to put a good value non-reserve bottle of wine on the market at a good price. They did make good reserves and tried some new things with international partnerships like Opus 1 but I think Mondavi never forgot the individual consumer and their value wines were always that--good value.

[Roy Hersh]

I've met both sons, Michael and Tim and both were loyal to their father and it was Michael that ran the company once his father retired. He made some strategic errors and misplays but also took a steady and conservative leadership role which worked for awhile. But he never had his father's global vision. A decent businessman, maybe. But the true foresight to read the marketplace stateside and abroad, no.

Robert had built many value brands and also single vineyard designations early on. For instance, even though his early Pinot Noir efforts in Napa caught on nicely, he created a "Carneros" label with fruit from that cooler AVA, so that they could keep the price lower yet at a high enough level that it would not obfuscate their value brand's image. Although they never fully gave up on To-Ka-Lon and other strategic vineyards, when they moved to the "Woodbridge" and later on, "Coastal" brands, they were already a fully mature company that was losing some focus on quality; while concentrating on further market penetration in the "fighting varietals" sector.

The name Mondavi will always be synonymous with Napa, as without Robert the entire look and feel of that region would be very different today. Along with Julia Child he did more for the food and wine pairing concept than anyone else in America before or since!