Robert Mondavi started it all and saw it all through a twisting, turning road as winding and tortuous as anything shooting off the Silverado Trail. Mondavi, whose winery of the same name became a brand in itself, was immortalized in “The House of Mondavi”, a thoroughly readable biography by The Wall Street Journal’s Julia Flynn Siler who covered the industry as a reporter. Reading it is reading the modern history of California wine and how it got to be what it is today. Wine marketing and branding owes him a debt of gratitude, as do all oenophiles. Remarkable guy. “Legend” doesn’t begin to describe him. More like a force of nature. Like the fog, soil and sunshine of Wine Country.
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