![]() ![]() Time will tell, although Chris Fehrnstrom, president of Icon Estates, the luxury-brand arm of Constellation, says splitting up the sales teams for the high-end Robert Mondavi Winery wines and the lesser Woodbridge and Private Selection brands has already made a tremendous difference. Napa eyes are now on Constellation to see if the world’s largest wine company will be a kindly caretaker of the Mondavi brand. Although Opus One is now a separate entity to Robert Mondavi Winery, it still bears Mondavis silhouette on the bottle. His eyes never danced like that when we worked together at Robert Mondavi Winery.’ Opus One, the resulting wine, first appeared in 1980, and has gone on to become one of Californias more iconic Cabernet Sauvignon wines, netting both high praise and high prices. ‘For the first time in his life, Dad is acting his age,’ says Michael, ‘but at the lunch, his eyes danced and he had a big smile. People say it’s too bad we sold I say too bad we didn’t do it sooner.’Īt a recent luncheon, teh whole family sat at the same table. ‘Tim looks more relaxed and happier than he has been in years. ‘We’re very happy for the other one to do what he wants, and to do things without being partners,’ he says. Michael says the absence of the pressures of running RMW has also allowed himself and Tim to come back together. His most recent move was to purchase the Mahoney Vineyards winery in Carneros in late 2006, as a production home for Folio and as leased studio space for small producers. Folio also makes its own California brands, including I’M, Oberon, Bocce and Hangtime an Oregon Pinot Noir is on the way. His first clients were Marchesi de Frescobaldi and Tenuta dell’ Ornellaia in Italy. A winery will also be constructed, ‘no doubt about it’.Īfter breaking away from Robert Mondavi Corp, Michael hit the ground running with Folio. ‘We hope to have continuity, to get a teensy bit of the vineyards back,’ says Tim, who is negotiating with Constellation to buy the two parcels. With time passing, we’re starting to discover the family benefits.’ We found we weren’t a family, we were a business. ‘There was a lot of angst, disappointment, lack of trust and communication among family members, and a division between family members and the brand. ‘2004 was not a good year,’ says Michael Mondavi, aged 64. The family, its members say, is on the mend. Mondavi’s elder son, Michael, the former CEO and chairman of Robert Mondavi Corp, who gave up his board seat just prior to Constellation’s $1.3 billion grab, has quickly started an import and production company called Folio Fine Wine Partners, with his children, Rob and Dina Mondavi. Yet he has enough energy to join his younger son, Tim, daughter Marcia Mondavi Borger and his wife, Margrit Biever Mondavi, in a new wine venture called Continuum.Īfter 50 years of feuding and 40 more of silence between them, Mondavi has made amends with his brother, Peter Sr, 92. September releases 2022: full score tableĪt 93, Mondavi is frail, in a wheelchair, doesn’t speak and drinks his wine in thimblefuls.Rhône 2021 score table: top white wines.March releases on the Place de Bordeaux 2023.September fine wine releases on La Place de Bordeaux 2023.
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