Robert Mondavi

Robert Mondavi died on friday at age 94. He is credited for having led the growth for California wines. Born in 1913, he attended Lodi High School and studied Business and Economics at Stanford University. After persuading his father to acquire Charles Krug winery, he founded the winery bearing his name in the late sixty's. The rest, as they say, is history...

• In addition to great wine, the winery sponsored great educational programs that included great music acts, as well as chefs (Julia Child, Alice Waters, Paul Bocuse and Joel Robuchon);
• he worked with great winemakers including Warren Winiarski (Stag's Leap Wine Cellars), Zelma Long (Zelphi, Vilafonte), Mike Grgich (Grgich Hills) and more;
• Launched Opus One with Baron Philippe de Rothschild (of Chateau Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux);
• Partnered with well-known winemaking families including the Frescobaldi family in Italy, Eduardo Chadwick of Viña Errazuríz in Chile, and Rosemount in Australia;
• Launched, in 2001, Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts;
• He and his second wife, Margrit Biever, launched the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in Davis --as well as the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science at UC Davis.