California wine legend Robert Mondavi dead at 94

By Jim Christie

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California winemaker Robert Mondavi, the man most credited with bringing the state's wines to worldwide attention, died on Friday at age 94 at his Napa Valley home, a spokeswoman for his namesake winery said.

Mondavi steered California winemakers away from making low-cost wines and toward refined wines, which ultimately would compete in quality with some of the best wines in Europe.

Robert Mondavi Winery spokeswoman Mia Malm said Mondavi's family had told her he died on Friday morning. Details were not immediately available, but Mondavi had been in ailing health for some time and was confined to a wheelchair.

The son of Italian immigrants, Mondavi first learned about grape-growing from his father. He then traveled the world to expand his winemaking knowledge and went on to create the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley in 1966.

He used the winery as a platform to preach winemaking innovation to fellow vintners until he sold the business to the giant drinks group Constellation Brands in 2004.

Mondavi was as much a salesman as a winemaker. Without his tireless promotion of California wines, the state's wine industry would never have become the force it is, wine industry insiders say.

"He was a substantive personality in the industry -- on many different fronts," said Don Sebastiani, a winemaker in neighboring Sonoma Valley and chief executive of Don Sebastiani and Sons.

Mondavi and his wife, Margrit, also shaped the image of Napa Valley's "good life" reputation by launching the Great Chefs program in 1976 at the Robert Mondavi Winery, which helped establish California as a culinary trendsetter.