Friday, February 13, 2015

Robert Mondavi Tribute




The Official Robert Mondavi Tribute 

Artemis Film YouTube channel


The official tribute to Robert Mondavi


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Fittingly, Robert Mondavi wrote the foreward to 'Wine Heritage: The Story of Italian-American Vintners' (2000; Dick Rosano). You can get a used hardcover for a couple of bucks. Wine Heritage is the story of Italian immigrants whose descendants now dominate American wine making.

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This is a fantastic reference book. I had no idea what a elaborate web the italians have weaved in the US. Everyone knows about the Mondavi and Gallo families but who would have thought that so many italian winemakers exist in so many states. An added feature of this book is the winery profile section in the back. This is not typical for a history book. You get the history and the acumen of a very knowledgeable wine reviewer who used to write for the Washington Post. 

I was a devoted Rosano reader when he wrote for the Post and really felt the quality of wine writing for that paper declined significantly when he left. This compelling story doesn't include wine reviews but adds an interesting aspect above and beyond the average history book. I am a winemaker and read just about anything I can get my grape stained hands on about the subject. This is a book for everyone interested in the noble grape or just loves drinking the stuff. Take my advice and run, don't walk to the store to get it, then leave it out somewhere on a table and pick it up from time to time while enjoying a nice class of Sangiovese.
 

--Eric Daniel Weinstein, book review

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I was going to add one more book that someone told me about. It was about the history of the Napa wine industry, with a focus on the Mondavi family, but when I tried to search it on Amazon.com... there were hundreds of books about all aspects of Napa wine.

When Robert Mondavi first made a name for himself in Napa, many people in the world did not even believe that Napa wines were in the same class as in the South of France or Tuscany. He was a big part of changing that attitude to reality, and eventually to what is today a thirty-five billion a year industry in California.. and still growing.

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