Robert Mondavi and the Wine Industry

Essay by giggaUniversity, Bachelor's October 2006

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The Robert Mondavi Winery was founded in 1966 in Oakville, California. Robert Mondavi started the business after he separated from his brother, with whom he had run a winery until then. Only three years later, the Los Angeles Times named Mondavi's Cabernet Sauvignon 1969 as the best wine produced in California.

The Mondavi Winery focuses on three main strategies:

* produce wine traditionally

* be innovative

* educate US costumers concerning wine culture

TRADITION

Concerning wine making Robert Mondavi is "old fashioned", he refuses to adapt modern practices to "design" wines, like adding artificial flavours. He prefers to produce wine the traditional way like most of the European wineries. That means for example no additional ingredients and using expensive oak barrels for aging premium wine.

INNOVATION

On the other hand the Mondavi Winery introduced many new technologies to the Californian wine industry. For instance beginning in 1993 the company cooperated with NASA on a project to apply remote-sensing and digital-mapping technologies via satellite to enhance vineyard management.

WINE CULTURE

"People who enjoy food, art, music also enjoy fine wines, and they enjoy them more together....Wine is more than a drink. It's a culture."

This statement from Robert Mondavi shows clearly the importance of the wine culture for him. To share and spread this passion for good wines the Mondavi winery organizes concerts, art shows and other cultural events. These events are combined with winery tours and tasting of new wines. As soon as 1976, Robert Mondavi established the Great Chefs program, the first winery culinary program in the United States.

THE GLOBAL WINE INDUSTRY

Today global wine world can be divided into two halfs: the Old World, consisting of European wineries and the ones like Mondavi and the New World, which includes most of the Australian, South African and South...