Deals Drama Drive Michael Mondavi and the Making of Napa Valley

Deals Drama Drive is the story of Michael Mondavi, who has been at the centre of some of the most famous wine events of the last 60 years. From growing up at Charles Krug, the launching of Robert Mondavi Winery, to the joint ventures with the Rothschilds of Bordeaux and the Frescobaldis of Tuscany, Michael was in the room where it happened. While his father was the visionary, Michael was the “Go-get-it-done guy” – the man tasked with the job of taking Robert’s grand ideas and making them real. He tells his side of the story of that memorable day just before Thanksgiving 1965 when his father Robert called him at university to say they had both been thrown out of Charles Krug winery; of sitting down to plan out the winery that would become one of the most famous in California – and the world. We hear about creating Opus One, Luce and Seña, the failures of expansion to Languedoc, of Copia, and the deals that cemented Robert Mondavi’s rightful place alongside the great wine producers of the world. Michael talks of the trauma of being the eldest son of a genius, a man whose drive to conquer the wine world took a huge emotional toll on his three children. He remembers the emotional turmoil of losing control of Robert Mondavi Winery and the sale to Constellation. He looks with clear eyes at his subsequent career with Folio Fine Wine Partners, the mistakes he made and how he learnt from them. This is the story of the triumph and suffering of a man born into a wine dynasty, a man who has lived under the burden of a famous name, who looks back on his life with self-knowledge and a robust sense of humour.