3. Background
Date of birth : June 18, 1913
Birth place : Virginia, Minnesota
Family background
Parents : Cesare and Rosa Mondavi
Siblings : Sisters( Mary and Helen) and
younger brother (Peter)
Mother ran a boarding house for local Italian laborers
Father was the proprietor of a grocery store and later, a saloon.
Prohibition law enacted in 1919, which outlawed the sale of beer
and liquor, threatened Cesare Mondavi's business.
Mondavi's father decided to become a grape wholesaler for the
many Italian families who wanted to continue enjoying their
traditional wine with meals.
4. Background (contd.)
In the early 1920s, his family relocated to Lodi, California,
south of Sacramento.
Mondavi and his brother helped with the business, nailing
together wooden crates for shipping wine.
School Life
Mondavi showed a strong desire to succeed, playing on
the Lodi High School football team even though he was a
slight 140 pounds.
In the regional championships, Mondavi was chosen
"most valuable player.“
He served as president of his class one year, and was on
the swim team.
After high school, Mondavi was accepted at Stanford
University and graduated in 1937.
5. Background (contd.)
With guidance from his father, he began to study business,
in anticipation of building a career in the wine industry.
He also took chemistry classes to understand more about
the technical side of wine making.
7. Struggle Phase
• In the fall of 1936, Mondavi got a job at the Sunnyhill Winery,
later called Sunny St. Helena. His father was a partner in the
business.
• When Mondavi heard that the Charles Krug Winery, the oldest
in Napa Valley, was up for sale in 1943, he convinced his father
to buy it on the condition that he would work with his brother
to build it up.
• For 23 years, Robert and Peter Mondavi ran Krug together.
• Throughout the period, Robert Mondavi remained dissatisfied
with the quality of their output.
• He yearned to produce top-shelf products, such as those from
the Beaulieu or Inglenook vineyards.
8. Struggle Phase (contd.)
• He wanted his wines to be the best, striving for excellence.
• Peter Mondavi, on the other hand, was content with churning
out safe products and did not want to invest money on higher-
quality production techniques or expensive promotion.
• In 1965, the brothers came to physical blows, and Robert
Mondavi decided it was time to start his own winery.
• The split from his family business resulted in litigation, literally
pitting brother against brother.
• Mondavi sued Peter as well as his own mother for his share of
the business.
• The case was settled in 1978, with Mondavi receiving an
undisclosed sum and some parcels of vineyard.
9. Turning point
• In 1966, after many years working alongside his father
and brother at the family winery in St. Helena, California,
Robert Mondavi founded the Robert Mondavi Winery in
Napa, California.
• With his sons Michael and Tim and his daughter Marcia,
he focused the work of his new vineyard on creating
California wines that reflected the winemaking traditions
of Europe.
11. Turning point (contd.)
• He was sure that California could produce distinctive
bottles that would compete against any from France, Italy,
Germany, Spain, or Portugal.
• Mondavi was zealous in promoting his wares.
• He conversed regularly with wine writers in the United
States and London, becoming a spokesman for the
burgeoning fine wine industry in the Napa Valley.
• Mondavi vocally supported efforts to change American
attitudes about wine.
• For years, it had been thought of as either a very low-class
beverage of derelicts or as a special occasion drink.
• He wanted people to imbibe as his Italian family did:
regularly and in moderation, as part of daily life.
12. In the late 1970s, Robert Mondavi began a conversation with
French winemaker Baron Philippe de Rothschild.
American wines, even good ones, still could not compete
with the French.
They were relegated to a lower caste and lacked the cachet of
a French name.
In 1976, this situation began to change.
A British wine enthusiast named Steven Spurrier held a
blind tasting in Paris featuring wines of California and
France.
All nine judges were respected French wine critics,
sommeliers, and other oenophiles.
Of the whites, three out of four of the top-rated choices were
from Napa; the top-ranked red was from Napa; many others
ranked in the top ten.
Turning point (contd.)
13. Mondavi wrote in his autobiography, Harvests of Joy, "Ten
years before, I had made a bold claim and I had staked my
future on it: that we in California could make wines that
would stand proudly alongside the very best in the world.
The winning wines were undervalued in the United States,
selling for $6 or $7 a bottle because the winemakers figured
that Americans would refuse to pay any more than that.
A little later, good quality California wines would retail for
about $50 a bottle, though most winemakers such as
Mondavi would also produce decent products in the $10-
$15 range as well.
In 1980, the sharing of ideas blossomed into the Opus one
joint venture.
Turning point (contd.)
14. • The meeting of Napa and Bordeaux elevated the
international status of California wines
• According to the Opus One website, "Opus One … became
the first ultra-premium California wine to be sold in
France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland.“
• The Opus One project was the first high-profile
cooperative venture between European and American
vintners.
Turning point (contd.)
16. Achievement
• Mondavi has been an innovator in production methods.
• His company also got the reputation of being a "test-tube"
winery because of all the innovations they tried in order to
improve their products.
• Robert and his wife Margrit were the first chairpersons of
the Auction Napa Valley. Today the Auction Napa Valley
continues to be one of the largest and most significant
fundraisers in the country, with millions of dollars donated
to local charities annually.
17. Achievement
• Robert Mondavi was selected as the Decanter "Man of the
Year" in 1989.
• In 1990, Robert Mondavi was granted the “Merit Award”
from the American Society of Enology and Viticulture and in
the same year received the “Wine and Spirits Professional of
the Year” from the James Beard Foundation.
18. Achievement (contd.)
• In 1991, Robert was recognized by the Culinary Institute of
America as an “Ambassador” and is granted a “Master of
Aesthetics of Gastronomy” award.
• In this same year Robert was recognized in the National
Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement, Inc.
• The Mondavi company created a capsule-free bottle design
in 1994, as part of its environmental research.
• In 1995, Robert Mondavi was inducted into the Bay Area
Business Hall of Fame and was also awarded an honorary
degree, “Associate Member of Cornell Society of Hotelmen”
from Cornell University.
• In 2002, Robert Mondavi is recognized by the California
State Assembly for his lifetime contributions to the
California Wine industry
20. Achievement (contd.)
• In 2005, The Republic of France bestows the Legion
d'Honneur, France's highest presidential honor, upon
Robert Mondavi.
• On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted
Mondavi into the California Hall of Fame, located at The
California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
• At 83 years old, he carried the Olympic torch down the
streets of Napa.
21. Lesson Learnt
• The key to Robert Mondavi's success lies not only in his
own dedication: equally important is his ability to inspire
people to strive for excellence.
• He has shown that quality works and has led others to the
same goal.
• Robert Mondavi is one of a kind a kind exceptionally worth
knowing.
• Emphasis required for vision, drive, perfectionism,
willingness to innovate, and work ethic.
• If we are able to educate people about a product then we
could achieve a substantial market for any product.
• Plan for long term quality is not possible overnight it might
take years or even generations.
22. Lesson Learnt
• To be unique creation of fresh option is required.
• To be able to identify challenges that we could dedicate our
life, sweat and blood, heart and soul.
