Review Week: The House of Mondavi by Julia Flynn Siler
This month’s issue (July 2008) of Decanter magazine ran an article from Margaret Rand on Wine Dynasties in Australian Wineries. The first paragraph laments the typical family life cycle of an American winery, concluding:
There you are, needing a winemaker or a vineyard manager, and all your children want to do is make up rhymes or flog other people’s houses. In the end you give in, and sell the company, probably to Constellation. End of dynasty.
That isn’t exactly how it went down in The House of Mondavi, but it isn’t too far off. Julia Flynn Siler’s epic account of the Mondavi family follows the odyssey from Cesare Mondavi’s arrival in America all the way to the sale of the empire to Constellation Brands in 2005. Along the way, each new father attempted to blaze a trail for their sons to carry on and in each instance, the plans fell pray to catastrophe.
Those not into wine will probably enjoy this book as much as casual wine enthusiasts. The material is grounded in wine, but wine is a backdrop. In the foreground is a family saga that unfolds like a soap opera. The story of the Mondavi family is there and wine is just a bit player woven in alongside corporate ousters, lawyers, divorces, love, hate, and colossal family struggle among the Mondavi’s.
You get to know each family member like a piece of the puzzle. In describing the family squabble that ousted Robert from Charles Krug Winery during the 1970′s, Siler paints an unflattering picture of Robert Mondavi’s mother, Rosa, and his younger brother Peter. As with documentaries, the reader can’t quite be sure what was omitted from the account that may have changed a perspective. Outsider accounts, though, imply that the depiction was warranted. Siler recounts one of the court decisions involving Charles Krug and the parent company:
From his written decision, Judge Carter viewed Robert as a man of integrity who had been deeply wronged by his family, while Peter fell far short of that, as his treatment of growers, self-dealing, and inconsistencies to the court demonstrated.
After being outsed from Charles Krug, the winery that his father purchased and helped build into a successful business, Robert Mondavi’s sons seemed doomed to repeat the very same mistakes while fighting over the Robert Mondavi Winery. It was eventually sold to Constellation Brands.
If you don’t know the history of the Mondavi’s, if you don’t know that the bottle of 2005 Robert Mondavi Winery Reserve isn’t mad by Robert Mondavi or anyone from his family, if you don’t know why Charles Krug has the tagline of “A Mondavi Family Winery,” then get someone to describe it all to you. If you really want to get into depth and details of what happened to this family throughout the last 80 years, then Julia Flynn Siler has provided an exhaustive account. The book labors at times and some paragraphs can be given a skim. Other than those few sections, Siler’s narrative moves well and provides an entertaining look at a saga that television show creator Darren Star likely dreams about in his sleep.
