Patriarch of California wine dies at age 94

Robert Mondavi died Friday at his Napa Valley home. He was 94.

Pulling a couple of praragraphs from the obituary that's running on forbes.com, Mondavi was the son of Italian immigrants had worked in the wine industry since graduating from Stanford University with a degree in economics the 1930s. He started at the Charles Krug Winery, in which his parents had invested after leaving Minnesota for California. A tempestuous relationship with his brother, Peter, led to a split from the family business and he opened his eponymous Napa Valley winery in Northenr California in 1966 at age 52.

Called in a bold innovator, Mondavi put his wines up against French vintages in blind tastings and championed the use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, which have become commonplace in California's $20 billion wine industry today. After beating some well-known French vintages in a 1976 blind tasting, Mondavi set up the first French-American wince venture, joining forces with Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The pair developed the ultra-premium Opus One at Oakville, producing their first vintage in 1979.

Mondavi turned over day-to-day control of the winery to his sons in the mid--1990s, but a second generation of sibling disagreements, intense competition from other New World wines and a glut of California production in the early 2000s took its toll on the business, which was bought out for $1.3 billion by Constellation Brands in 2004.

I've done a couple of things to add some depth to Mondavi. I've asked a select group of winery owners in this region for their reaction, good and bad, and included a link to today's New York Times story on the death and life of Mondavi and a link to the Mondavi Web site, which includes his biography, his lifetime achievements and quotes.