His two daughters and two of his three sons work with him at the winery, producing the high-end wine he always dreamed of – Continuum, a classic bold Cabernet.
And the family battles of the past, sometimes very public, have been laid to rest.
Last weekend Tim Mondavi was in Phuket with his partner Melinda Kearney and the estate’s sales and marketing director David Bantly, as part of a promotional tour of Asia.
In Amanpuri’s new Lounge, he spoke of the heartbreaking times in 2004 when Robert Mondavi Winery (RMW), the wine giant his father Robert built, was bought out from under the family. It still leaves a bitter taste.
“Our board,” he explains, “certainly knew finances better than I do. They understood the balance sheet but they didn’t know what it was balancing on. They overused my father’s good name – as you could with automobiles or with many other products – but wine is a different animal.”
At its height, RMW was a $500-million-a-year listed business, producing huge amounts of its own wine and cooperating with Mouton-Rothschild on a wine called Opus One, and with the blue-blood Italian winemakers Frescobaldi.
Now it is owned by Constellation Brands and although it still trades on the Robert Mondavi name, the family are not involved.
But, Tim says, “Everything changes with time, so, as my father would say, ‘We must change with the changing times."
And, he says with a smile, “We were crestfallen and heartbroken but the good side is we had a bag of money to get over our heartsick and find this gorgeous property [the Continuum vineyards and winery].
“They say one way to get over heartsick is to find a new love. And this is my new love. It’s a fabulous property.”
In the first three years of Continuum the wines were made with grapes from the To Kalon vineyard – “the best known vineyard in America” – formerly owned by Robert Mondavi Co. But now the vines at Continuum are producing grapes that Tim thinks are even better.
“I think this site has even greater potential for quality – not for yield.” In his father’s day, he says, a vineyard like this would not have been economically sound. But now, with today’s more mature market, it will work.
Apart from wonderful views, the 38-acre Continuum vineyards, with red rocky soil, are high enough to be above the fog of the valley below, meaning that neither high nor low temperatures are as extreme as in the valley. The rain runs off. It’s drier and vines have to compete more, are more stressed, leading to less watery, more opulent fruit.
“We’ve got a fabulous site. Not for yield, but for a great wine. Our yields are much much lower – about 1.5 to two tons per acre – because of the shy soil and the elevation.
“If we can leverage that into the reality of a great wine, and the recognition of a great wine, then we are playing in a more rarified stratosphere and it’s easier for us to compete.
“And it’s what I know best and what I love best.”
The family have been fractious in the past. His father infamously traded punches with his brother Peter, and Tim and his brother Michael, too, have fought, though not physically. Tim is at pains to show that any rift between him and Michael is now healed. He shows photographs of Michael at the recent wedding of Tim’s daughter.
But the two brothers don’t do business together. Michael markets a variety of wines. Tim makes just one.
That aside, there is still enormous pride in the family and what it achieved. “That’s what Continuum represents. Continuum is continuing on with the best that my family stood for.
“I’ve never been happier in my life.”
Tim is now 64, and it’s coming time for the next generation of Mondavis to make their mark.
Already his sons Carlo and Dante, though they continue to work at Continuum, have their own project.
It’s called RAEN (for “Research in Agriculture and Enology Naturally”) and is aimed at producing a world-class Pinot Noir in the western hills of the Sonoma Valley. The Mondavi continuum continues into its fourth generation.
In Thailand, Continuum is represented by BB&B, thanks to an old connection with BB&B president Ron Batori.
In the US the suggested retail price for a bottle of Continuum is around $200 (B6,000). Thanks to Thailand’s huge taxes on imported wine it will retail here at around B17,000 a bottle. It may not be easy to get hold of. Current production is just 3,300 cases a year.