Opening profile:Robert Mondavi

Presented by:Karun BhandariKrishnaa Prasai

Nima Doma SherpaPabitra PandeyPrakriti Thapa

Contents

• Background• Struggle phase• Turning points• Achievement• Lesson learnt

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.

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.

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.

Krishnaa

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.

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.

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.

Nima

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.

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.)

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.)

• 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.)

Pabitra

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.

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.

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

Prakriti

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.

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.

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.