Robert Mondavi, all-American pioneer

(WP) - Robert Mondavi would have turned 100 last month. His birthday was celebrated throughout California wine country, including at the annual Napa Valley Wine Auction he helped create and at the winery that bears his name. This seminal figure in the American wine industry, who died in May 2008, was recognized for contributions that extended well beyond Napa Valley.

Mondavi’s story is well known among wine lovers. He was the eldest son of Italian immigrants who moved to California to supply grapes to home winemakers back east during Prohibition. In 1943, the family bought the Charles Krug Winery, which had been operating since 1861. In the mid-1960s, Mondavi’s life took a soap-operatic turn: After punching his younger brother, Peter, during an argument over the business, Robert was fired by his mother, Rosa. He started his own winery with his two sons, Michael and Tim, and together they helped transform the California wine industry. (Peter Mondavi, now 98, and sons Marc and Peter Jr. still operate the Charles Krug Winery.)

The Robert Mondavi Winery helped establish Napa Valley’s reputation as a world-class wine region. Miljenko “Mike” Grgich and Warren Winiarski — who won the 1976 Paris Tasting against famous French wines with their Chateau Montelena chardonnay and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars cabernet sauvignon, respectively — are Mondavi alumni. In the late 1970s, Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux, created Opus One, a joint venture intended to be California’s “first growth” red wine.