Robert Mondavi
Robert Gerald Mondavi (born June 18, 1913 in Virginia , Minnesota , † May 16, 2008 in Yountville , California ) was a pioneer of American viticulture .
Life
Robert Gerald Mondavi was the eldest son of Cesare Mondavi (1883-1959) and his wife Rosa, who were Italian immigrants. After a brief career in iron mining, Cesare opened a saloon. In 1922 the family moved to California and started a wholesale business in grapes in Lodi , Central Valley . Wine was also produced for their own use. In 1943, the winery founded in 1861 by Charles Krug, a Prussian immigrant, was bought for $ 75,000. Robert left the family business in a dispute because his younger brother Peter (1914-2016) inherited the winery.
In 1966 he founded his own Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville with his older son Robert Michael. It was the first new winery in the Napa Valley since the prohibition period (1919–1933). The operation subsequently became the benchmark for completely new cellar technology. Special experiments were carried out with barrel expansion, which Robert Mondavi specifically researched after a visit to Europe. The famous "Fumé Blanc" was created, a dry white wine made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape variety and matured in barriques . Since the founding of the winery, Robert Mondavi's goal was to produce fine Californian wines and market them worldwide. He relied on a range of wines from different regions in California - the Napa Valley, the Monterey Coastal Area, Lodi and Santa Maria Valley.
Robert Mondavi died in May 2008 at the age of 94.
Creation of "Opus One"
Together with Baron Philippe de Rothschild (1902–1988), Robert Mondavi started the joint venture “Opus One Vineyard” in the Napa Valley in 1979 , which created the red wine Opus One . There are other participations and collaborations with Frescobaldi and Ornellaia ( Italy ) and Errázuriz ( Chile ), among others . Other wines from projects and joint ventures between the Robert Mondavi Winery and other wineries are Luce, Lucente and Danzánte in cooperation with Marchese Vittorio de 'Frescobaldi from Tuscany and Seña and Caliterra in cooperation with the Eduardo Chadwick family from Viña Errázuriz in Chile . The company also holds shares in Tenuta dell'Ornellaia , the famous winery in the DOC region of Bolgheri in Tuscany, which produces wines such as Ornellaia and Masseto and was founded by Marchese Lodovico Antinori, Piero Antinori's younger brother . This is how the first wine of the Australian joint venture ›Rosemount Estate‹ with Robert Oatley was born .
Quote
“ Making good wine is a craft - creating great wine is an art. "
Sale of the Robert Mondavi Winery
In 1993 Timothy and Robert Michael, sons of Robert, took over the management of the Mondavi empire. The family business was converted into a stock corporation. A good decade later, the Mondavi family had to give up their stake in the public company. She had taken over financially and the business was sold to the spirits group Constellation Brands in December 2004 . Constellation Brands paid 1.36 billion dollars to acquire the majority of shares required for the takeover . Robert Mondavi would later regret the decision to convert the family business into an AG.
Robert Mondavi Europe
The company Robert Mondavi Europe was founded in 1997 with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main and has since been responsible for the European sales of Robert Mondavi's wines from California . With the purchase of Robert Mondavi Corp. USA, the Europe branch of Constellation Brands was dissolved in 2005 . The regular team of Robert Mondavi Europe GmbH has set up its own business in TxB International Fine Wines GmbH, based in Frankfurt. The distribution in Europe took place soon afterwards through the company Accolade Wines, this cooperation ended in 2014. Since then, the wines from the Robert Mondavi Winery have been marketed by the Constellation Brands sales team.
Patronage
The Robert Mondavi Winery was one of the first US wineries to organize concerts, art exhibitions, and culinary events. Robert's second wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, née Kellenberger from Switzerland was responsible for this. The winery became an event location , which was at times the third largest tourist attraction in the USA.
He donated $ 35 million to the University of California at Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and an additional $ 10 million to complete a performing arts center named after him and his wife, Margrit.
literature
- Robert Mondavi: Harvests of Joy. How the Good Life Became Great Business. Harvest Books, 1998, 376 pp., ISBN 0-15-601056-9 , autobiography
- Julia Flynn Siler: The House of Mondavi - The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty. Gotham Books, 2007, 452 pp., ISBN 978-1-592-40259-5
Cookbook
- Annie and Margrit: Recipes and Stories from the Robert Mondavi Kitchen , Ten Speed Press, 2003, 202 pp., ISBN 1-58008-437-0
Margrit Biever Mondavi and her daughter Annie Roberts (head chef) received the “Best in the World” award at the international cookbook competition “ Gourmand World Cookbook Awards ” on February 27, 2004 in Barcelona . The Gourmand Cookbook Award was founded in 1995 by Eduard Cointreau . In addition to around 130 recipes as well as expert tips and wine recommendations, the authors also give anecdotes an insight into family life and the Robert Mondavi Winery .
See also
Web links
swell
- ↑ Songwriting & Winemaking - It's All in the Craft ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nashville WinePress, 2007
- ^ A b "Robert Mondavi Dies at Age of 94. Visionary vintner helped usher in a new era for California wine", Wine Spectator, May 16, 2008
- ^ A b Esther Mobley: Pioneering Napa Valley Matriarch Margrit Mondavi dies at 91st San Francisco Chronicle, September 3, 2016
- ^ Marc Kowalsky: Robert Mondavi . Obituary. In: Die Weltwoche , No. 21.08, p. 27
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mondavi, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mondavi, Robert Gerald (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American entrepreneur, pioneer of American viticulture |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 18, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Virginia , Minnesota |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 16, 2008 |
| Place of death | Yountville , California |