Robert Mondavi

Pioneering vintner who put California wine country on the global map. Born in Virginia, Minnesota, Mondavi got an economics degree from Stanford University in California in the 1930s and went to work at the Charles Krug Winery, which his Italian-born parents had bought after moving to California from Minnesota. He married his high school sweetheart, Marjorie Declusin in 1937 and they had three children - R. Michael Mondavi, Tim Mondavi and Marcia Mondavi Borger. For 20 years, the winery was a family business. But Robert and Peter, his younger brother by 14 months, clashed frequently. Robert Mondavi had ambitious plans for the winery; Peter Mondavi had a more conservative style. A long and bitter legal fight ensued. In 1966, at the age of 52 and using borrowed money, Mondavi started over, opening his own winery. In the late 1970s, Mondavi's first marriage ended; in 1980, he married a second time, to Margrit Biever, a native of Switzerland who had worked at the Mondavi winery since the late '60s.