Full transcript
The Feud That Built It
Robert Mondavi ran the business side of Charles Krug, the winery his Italian immigrant parents bought in the 1940s, until a blowup with his brother Peter got physical and the family removed him. In 1966, at age fifty-two, he opened his own place in Oakville — the first major new winery in Napa Valley since Prohibition. The Mission-style arch out front was designed to welcome strangers in, an idea so unusual at the time that it essentially invented the modern tasting-room visit. Walk under the great arch and look up before you go anywhere else.
Fume Blanc and To Kalon
In 1968 Mondavi renamed his dry, oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc "Fume Blanc," because Americans assumed anything labeled Sauvignon Blanc would be sweet. The rebrand worked, and the grape never looked back. His heart was always the To Kalon Vineyard next door, an Oakville site planted since the 1860s where the estate now farms several hundred acres. He also shared freely with neighbors — pushing them toward varietal labeling and European standards — which is why the whole valley improved instead of just one cellar. Stand at the edge of the vineyard rows and compare their soil color to the ground you crossed to get there.
From Family Rivalry to Opus One
Mondavi kept expanding what Napa could claim. Around 1979 he joined forces with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Bordeaux's First Growth Mouton Rothschild to build Opus One just down Highway 29, a deliberate statement that California Cabernet belonged beside French classified growths. The original winery itself became part of Constellation Brands in 2004, though the family name still runs across every bottle. Notice how many nearby estates copy the courtyard-and-tour format this one pioneered — then head inside and find the barrel room doorway.