Vintners across Napa Valley, who respect Robert Mondavi for his dedication to viniculture evangelism, business acumen, and vision, also admire him for his generosity, curiosity, thoroughness, personal magnanimity, are worried that there is no one of Mondavi's stature, to succeed him, to lead them out of the turmoil of the current wine glut, and economic crisis.
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THE PATRIARCH IN A STORM

The valley is still watching Robert Mondavi. This time, to
see how he faces the turmoil in his family business.

Los Angeles Times
By Corie Brown
Times Staff Writer
June 11, 2003

Robert Mondavi, the patron of Napa Valley, shows no signs of slowing down as he approaches his 90th birthday, (neither socially or business wise.)...

Mondavi dismisses...(his critics's)taste as faddish. "I like gentle, friendly, food-centered wine. The big, rich, overripe wines are not my favorites," ...those wines are so intense you can't drink them...

Mondavi learned the business working for Charles Krug Winery, a company his Italian immigrant father, Cesare, bought after Prohibition. Robert took his first wine-tasting (world)trip in 1962,... When he returned, he was eager to change the way the family made wine.

It was the beginning of serious strains in the Mondavi clan, according to James Conaway's 1990 history of the valley, "Napa: The Story of an American Eden." By 1965, the problems had escalated into a fistfight with his younger brother, Peter. The family rallied behind Peter and dismissed Robert from Krug.

Mondavi started his winery at Oakville in 1966... "He was the first American [vintner] after Prohibition to go to Europe to taste wines,"
says Lail... "It was typical Robert Mondavi. How do you get from A to B? You ask questions," she says, noting that he went door-to-door throughout Bordeaux every year for several years, interviewing the world's top winemakers until he had his answers.

The French took note of him as well. In 1978, Baron Philippe de Rothschild offered to create a wine partnership in Napa. One of Bordeaux's premiere vintners wanted to make a Napa wine with a man who considered himself still struggling to make his mark. The result was Opus One: The 1979 vintage was released for the unprecedented price
of $50 a bottle.

"Mondavi showed the world that high-quality wines from Napa could compete with Bordeaux," says Phelps' Shelton, noting that Mondavi always wanted broad national and international acceptance of his wines.

That position as a volume producer now stands in stark contrast to the current darlings of the wine critics -- wineries that trade on exclusivity, he says.

Building a culture

The enduring legacy of Mondavi, say several Napa vintners is his generosity. There is the obvious -- Mondavi contributed $30 million toward the $55-million Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, a world-class cultural center on the Napa River in the town of Napa. He gave $25 million toward construction of the $82-million Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis, as well as an additional $10 million toward a new performing arts center at the university.

It's the personal magnanimity that is most remarkable, say his friends. Every Napa vintner seems to have a story of a time when Mondavi lent them a hand.

Dennis Groth, owner of Groth Vineyards & Winery, was a new Napa vineyard owner, fresh from the computer games industry, when Mondavi's key executives invited him over for a tour of their winery. What he hadn't expected was the subtext of their invitation. "They gave me names, numbers, where to go, what to do," says Groth. "Mondavi believes it is important for everyone to succeed in Napa. I was stunned."

Eric Wente, chief executive of Wente Vineyards, calls Mondavi "an evangelist," a man more focused on the future than any of his peers ever has been.

Mondavi, who still enjoys two glasses of wine at lunch and splits a bottle each night with his wife, Margrit, is looking forward. "We are going to be growing, staying an independent, family-controlled company. Eventually, people will understand."

The patriarch in a storm
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-mondavi
11jun11,1,962442.story?coll=la-headlines-food-manual