Death of an icon

Robert Gerald Mondavi, who dreamed of putting Napa Valley onto the map of world-class wines beside the best of Europe and succeeded beyond his wildest imagination, died of natural causes Friday morning at home in Yountville at age 94.

Over his lifetime, the Mondavi legend spanned the creation of a signature Napa Valley winery, a famous feud with his brother, Peter, and a bold decision to take his company public, only to lose it to an international conglomerate.

In time, the Mondavi name also became synonymous with innovations in winemaking and a commitment to giving back to the community that led to creation of the Napa Wine Auction and funding of a performing arts hall that bears his name.

His influence on the Napa Valley wine region was unparalleled.

"No single individual has had as great an impact on the American wine industry, and in some respects on the global wine industry, as Robert Mondavi," said Vic Motto, a veteran Napa Valley wine industry consultant.

At Mondavi's Oakville Winery on Friday morning, winery workers suspended tours, dropped the American and California flags to half-staff and offered visitors a complimentary tasting in honor of the man who brought Napa Valley wine to the world.

"Everyone knows Robert Mondavi, and when you think of wine, you think of Robert Mondavi and Napa," said Yvonne Miranda, who was visiting the winery from Honolulu.

She said she was shocked to learn of the passing of this icon of American wine. Others were reflective, noting the long history of not just Robert Mondavi but the family that has been an anchor along Highway 29 for decades.

In addition to his brother, he is survived by his second wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi; two sons, R. Michael and Timothy; and daughter Marcia Mondavi Borger. Margrit Mondavi was in London at the time of the death and was on her way back to Napa.

Born in Hibbing, Minn., the third of four children born to Italian immigrants Cesare and Rosa, Mondavi from early on was obsessed with being the best.

In his 1998 autobiography, "Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business," he wrote, "Wine to me is passion. It's family and friends. It's warmth of heart and generosity of spirit."

"He had a love of people and an enthusiasm that was infectious," said Clay Gregory, former general manager of Robert Mondavi Winery and now president of Jackson Family Wines. "In those 94 years, he lived the equivalent of 200 for most people. He made the most of every day."

A future in wine

When Mondavi was 10, the family moved west to Lodi, then the grape capital of the United States, where Cesare made a business of buying grapes wholesale and shipping them to the Midwest and East Coast, to Italian families looking to craft homemade wines.

Mondavi attended Stanford University, where he studied economics and business administration and played rugby. After graduation and being encouraged by his father, who saw a great future in California wine, particularly from the grapes being grown in Napa, Mondavi took a summer crash course in viticulture and enology from Vic Enriques, a professor of enology at UC Berkeley.

In fall 1936, he arrived in St. Helena and went to work for Jack Riorda, a friend of his father's who ran a small bulk-winery operation called Sunnyhill Winery, later known as Sunny St. Helena and the site of present-day Merryvale Vineyards.

In 1937, he married high school sweetheart Marjorie Declusin, and the two moved into a little house on Charter Oak Street in St. Helena, where they soon started a family.

In 1943, Mondavi heard that the fabled Charles Krug Winery in St. Helena, founded in 1861 and one of the first in Napa Valley, was for sale. He convinced his father to buy it, and he in turn insisted that Robert co-run the business with his younger brother, Peter.

The two operated the winery together for 23 years, living onsite alongside their parents during much of that time. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Krug was among the "Big Five" wineries of the Napa Valley, which included Beaulieu Vineyard, Inglenook, Louis Martini and Beringer Brothers.

Feud over mink coat

In 1962, Mondavi made his first voyage to Europe, visiting many of the great wine-producing regions to see how they made their wines, including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany and the Moselle region of Germany.

But coming back to Krug, Mondavi did not find his brother always willing to go along with his larger vision. The two famously came down to fisticuffs in November 1965, Robert admitting he "smacked (Peter), hard. Twice."

At issue was Robert's purchase of a mink coat for then-wife Marjorie, in anticipation of a state dinner invitation to the White House, a dinner ultimately preempted by President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

The two Mondavi brothers were already in their early 50s and had been in business together for decades. But the split became official, lengthy and public, with a bitter and tangled lawsuit and 103-day court case involving lawyer and future San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto, who represented Peter and Rosa against Robert.

On Aug. 12, 1976, a 159-page verdict was issued, ruling that Peter, Rosa and the family partnership had acted improperly. The judge also ordered that Krug be sold and Robert be paid compensatory damages totaling $538,885 plus his 20 percent share of Krug evaluated at fair market value. Rosa died a month before the verdict was read.

In the end, the parties settled, allowing Peter to hold onto Krug. And with the proceeds, Robert, then 65, was able to take over complete ownership of the Robert Mondavi Winery.

"The family had made preparations for this day for a long time. Whether his passing heals the family, I don't know," said Julia Flynn Siler, author of "The House of Mondavi," released last June.

New era of promotion

He had opened the doors to his namesake winery in Oakville in 1966. The first big new winery to be built from the ground up in Napa since Louis Martini's winery in 1933, its construction marked the beginning of what historian Thomas Pinney has called, "a new era of unrelenting, and highly successful, promotion for the region."

The first wine released by the Robert Mondavi Winery was a gamay rosé, made available in March 1967, just six months after the winery's first harvest. It sold for $1.79 a bottle.

Among the many innovations and new ideas that came out of Mondavi throughout its history (the winery often was called "Mondavi University") was the use of French oak barrels for aging wine. At the time, the only other winery in California to do so was Hanzell in Sonoma.

In addition to barrel aging, Mondavi was a pioneer in vacuum bottling and cold fermentation, techniques that Mondavi himself picked up through his travels.

"I wanted to take American technology, management techniques and marketing savvy and fuse them together with Old World tradition and elegance in the art of making fine wine," he wrote in "Harvests of Joy."

Speaking to the public

Of his tireless promotion of Napa, good friend Ernest Gallo supposedly said of Mondavi, when asked how it was Mondavi had become one of the premier spokesmen, "Well, look at everyone else!"

The Gallo brothers never spoke to the media and many others in the wine industry, farmers and growers predominantly, didn't like to speak to reporters or the public either.

By his own admission, Mondavi never stopped, willing to talk to anyone who would listen about the greatness of his and other Napa Valley wines. He was known to go up to strangers at restaurants and offer them tastes of his wines and to duck out of important business meetings to take a reporter for a winery tour.

Mondavi took his company public in 1993. Over the next decade sales rose to $468 million and the company owned or co-owned such internationally known brands as Robert Mondavi Winery, Robert Mondavi Private Selection, Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, Opus One, Ornellaia, Luce della Vite, Lucente, Arrowood, La Famiglia di Robert Mondavi, Hang Time, Byron and Caliterra.

By early 2004, Mondavi's board of directors was suggesting he split the company in two, selling his luxury brands, including Robert Mondavi Winery and its 50 percent share in Opus One, while holding on to the inexpensive value brands such as Woodbridge.

Instead, in December 2004, Constellation Brands bought the entire company for $1.3 billion, keeping Robert on as chairman emeritus and roving ambassador for his namesake wines.

He later formed a partnership with his son Tim to produce Continuum, a cabernet sauvignon-petit verdot-cabernet franc blend sourced from vineyards that previously belonged to the family. The 2005 vintage, its first, is expected to be released this spring.

Giving back to community

Over the years, Robert and Margrit Mondavi became generous benefactors to many local causes and helped found the Napa Valley Wine Auction in 1981. In 2001, they gave $35 million to UC Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and to name the school's Center for the Performing Arts.

The two also were the visionary founders and major contributors to COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in Napa, founding supporters of the restoration of the Napa Valley Opera House as well as the Napa-based Oxbow School, providing grants and instruction to art students in their junior year of high school.

The Mondavis also contributed to the restoration of the Lincoln Theatre in Yountville and supported the Cantor Art Center at Stanford.

Funeral services will be private, said Mia Malm, the winery's director of public relations. The winery will be closed this weekend. But there are plans for a public memorial for Mondavi within the next several weeks.

Eric Morham, president of Icon Estates, the fine-wine division of Mondavi winery owner Constellation Brands, offered no details other than to say the iconic winemaker had requested a "big party."

Staff Writers Derek J. Moore, Diane Peterson and Kevin McCallum contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Virginie Boone at 521-5440 or virginie.boone@

pressdemocrat.com.