Robert Mondavi
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Image:Robert Mondavi entrance.jpg Robert Gerald Mondavi (born June 18, 1913 in Virginia, Minnesota, United States) is a leading vineyard operator whose technical improvements and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi aggressively promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically. This is now the standard for New World wines and is favored by most consumers around the world. Where legally permitted, many Old World producers are increasingly labeling their wines varietally because of consumer demand.
Robert Mondavi's parents emigrated from the Marche region of Italy and established a wine making business in the United States. Mondavi grew up in the Minnesota city of Virginia, where he attended Hibbing High School. Mondavi graduated from Stanford University in 1937 with a degree in economics and business administration. He worked with his father after the latter had acquired the Charles Krug Winery, established in 1861 in the Napa Valley.
After a family feud, Mondavi left Krug in 1965 to open his own winery. He bought the To Kalon vineyard in Oakville in the Napa Valley. The winery bearing his name produced high quality wine in the California mission style.
In 1966, with his elder son, R. Michael Mondavi, and family founded the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley with the goal of producing wines that would rival the finest wines of Europe.
In 1967, Robert's wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, joined the winery.
In 1968 he made a dry oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc, an unpopular variety in the California at the time, and labelled it "Fumé Blanc." The wine was a success and, in time, Fumé Blanc became accepted as a synonym for Sauvignon Blanc.
Mondavi successfully developed a number of premium wines that earned the respect of connoisseurs and vintners alike. In 1979, he acquired Woodbridge Winery in Lodi, California developing it into a leader of popular-premium wines. He also entered into a joint venture the Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild to create Opus One Winery, and since the 1990s has set up joint ventures with local partners in Europe, South America and Australia.
Robert Mondavi's autobiography Harvests of Joy was published in 1998.
On December 22, 2004, Constellation Brands acquired the Mondavi vinery for nearly US$1.36 billion.
Due to the contributions of Robert and Margrit Mondavi, the Mondavi Center in Davis, California for performing arts was named after him.
The two are founders and major benefactors behind COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, which opened November, 2001 in the town of Napa, California. Robert and Margrit are also founding supporters of the restoration of the 19th Century Napa Valley Opera House and the Oxbow School, a new art school in Napa that provides grants and instruction to art students in their junior year of high school. They have contributed to the restoration of the Lincoln Theatre in Yountville, California, and have supported the Cantor Art Center at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
