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The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty (Hardcover)
| Category:
Wine industry, American industry, Corporate America |
| Market price: ¥ 278.00
MSL price:
¥ 248.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
MSL Pointer Review:
A compelling history of the Mondavi wine empire.
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Measurements: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
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Order code: BA01351
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- MSL Picks -
This is a terrific history of the Mondavi family and the rise and fall of its wine empire. Family infighting and unwise business decisions and a dash of bad luck are part and parcel of this story. The author, Julia Flynn Siler, writes in a spellbinding manner. The approach and theme (page ix): "Over a period of two and a half years, the author interviewed all of the principle family members involved in the events leading to the sale of Robert Mondavi Corporation, seeking to understand how and why a seemingly "takeover proof" family-controlled company was sold over the objections of several key family members."
The book takes us through four generations of the family. There at the beginning: Cesare and Rosa Mondavi (there is a useful genealogy on the inside of the cover page). The book describes their journey to California and the start of the family wine business.
The book is divided into four parts-Foundation, Construction, Expansion, and the lugubrious finale, Demolition.
Key themes: family infighting. Cesare's two sons, Robert and Peter had a major falling out, with Peter winning the family battle and ousting him from the family business. The father had sought a single condition when he began the purchase of the Charles Krug Winery-(page 23): "Robert and Peter must work together to build the business." The promise failed.
After he left Charles Krug, Robert Mondavi engaged in a legal scorched earth policy against his brother and mother (who sided with Peter). The end result? Robert won and the rest of the family, in essence, lost. This sad story is told engagingly and leaves one scratching one's head as to what could have accounted for a family meltdown.
Robert began his own wine business and brought his sons and daughter into key positions. Over time, he acquired other businesses and the venture expanded. However, eerily reminiscent of his own family falling out, his two sons had serious tensions between them, with very different visions of where the company should go.
Interesting vignettes: the joint venture with the legendary Baron Philippe de Rothschild and his wife, who took aver the reins after the Baron's death, Baroness Philippine de Rothschild.
The book itself reads almost like a Greek tragedy, where the reader can see all the fault lines and can see disaster looming; however, the characters themselves as they lived their lives were unable to control events.
This is a well written book that brings one into the world of winemaking and one family's successes and failures.
(From quoting Steven A. Peterson, USA)
Target readers:
General business readers.
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Julia Flynn writes front-page stories for The Wall Street Journal from San Francisco, reporting extensively on the recent turbulence at the Robert Mondavi Corp. She was a London-based foreign correspondent for the Journal and BusinessWeek, and has written for The New York Times. She is a graduate of Brown University and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
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From Publisher
An epic, scandal-plagued story of the immigrant family that built-and then spectacularly lost-a global wine empire
Set in California’s lush Napa Valley and spanning four generations of a talented and visionary family, The House of Mondavi is a tale of genius, sibling rivalry, and betrayal. From 1906, when Italian immigrant Cesare Mondavi passed through Ellis Island, to the Robert Mondavi Corp.’s twenty-first-century battle over a billion-dollar fortune, award-winning journalist Julia Flynn brings to life both the place and the people in this riveting family drama.
The blood feuds are as spectacular as the business triumphs. Cesare’s sons, Robert and Peter, literally came to blows in the 1960s during a dispute touched off by the purchase of a mink coat, resulting in Robert’s exile from the family-and his subsequent founding of a winery that would set off a revolution in American winemaking. Robert’s sons, Michael and Timothy, as passionate in their own ways as their visionary father, waged battle with each other for control of the company before Michael’s expansive ambitions ultimately led to a board coup and the sale of the business to an international conglomerate.
A meticulously reported narrative based on thousands of hours of interviews, The House of Mondavi is bound to become a classic.
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AudioFile (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-22 00:00>
How did a family business, a billion-dollar enterprise such as the House of Mondavi, find itself open to a hostile takeover? Was it hubris, bad financial management, or a bit of both? Listening to Alan Sklar is always worthwhile, but with a story this fraught with biblical dimensions and Elizabethan complexities, he absolutely enthralls. Even with ambition, sibling rivalry, betrayal, and exile as staples of the story, Sklar doesnt overdramatize. His sensitive narration does more than air the familys wine-spotted linens in public. Thanks to Silers meticulous research, through interviews with all principal family members, court documents, and depositions, and Sklars vibrant performance, the story doesnt deteriorate into a soap opera. Instead it offers fascinating insights into a dysfunctional family and the wine-growing industry in Napa. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine |
Thomas M. Loarie (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-22 00:00>
I had an opportunity to meet Robert Mondavi in 1995 at his Napa vineyard during one the famed "Summer Concerts in the Vineyard." We had a shared interest since we were both involved in IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) managed by Goldman Sachs. He took the family business, Robert Mondavi Corp., public in 1993 and I was taking a life science business, KeraVision, Inc., public in 1995. Mondavi impressed me then as an American gem - hard working, visionary, entrepreneurial, humble and generous.
Julia Flynn Siler's "House of Mondavi" chronicles the life of this American gem, how he changed the wine industry in America and how his generosity caused him to lose control of a his company during the turbulent early 2000s. Generosity, not greed, brought the downfall - an outlier in a period when greed was the headline story.
After being banished from the family in 1965, Robert, the son of an Italian peasant, started over with virtually nothing and built the biggest name in the American wine industry. His wines took their place proudly with the world's finest.
His generosity with major gifts, including the largest single gift of $35 million (in pledged stock) to the University of California at Davis for a cultural center, put him in harm's way when the Mondavi share price plummeted. A board coup followed with Mondavi Chairman, and former Mckinsey & Co. partner, Ted Hall, firing Mondavi's son, Michael, and putting an end to the dual class ownership of the company's stock...and a loss of control by the Mondavi family.
The book also sheds light on the fragility of family succession and control in even the most established of enterprises - and how botched transfers of power from one generation to another caused conflicts that separated the family from its legacy. Running any family business is notoriously troublesome and very few ever make it into the fifth generation. This one did not as the public spotlight on Michael Mondavi's performance in a time of crisis (a general collapse of wine prices)weighed heavily in the final outcome.
Julia Flynn Siler has written a tight, well researched book that will keep most readers turning each page - particularly those interested in behind the scenes business stories, entrepreneurs, large family-run businesses, Napa Valley and its wine industry, and/or Robert Mondavi the person.
The story does not end with the loss of control as there is a silver lining which saved the Mondavi family from financial ruin. I will leave that and other details of the Mondavi chronicles for the reader to learn first hand.
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David Iverson (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-22 00:00>
Current history that reads like a novel. It is a well writen and engrossing look behind the scenes of the American Wine Explosion of the 20th Century. Siler kept me going to the dictionary with her marvelous use of the English (and other) languages. This is current history that reads like a novel. She paints vivid pictures of the Mondavi Family Members and their associates and weaves the story together in what seems to be a fair minded manner. If you love wine and have enjoyed the explosion of the wine industry in this country, you will like this book.
One criticism. Siler's editors did a shoddy job of 'fact checking', by identifying the town of Igloo, South Dakota as being in North Dakota. As a Dakota Native, it didn't read right. But the book again forced me to confirm my suspicion, by consulting an atlas. It's a small matter in the big picture, but creates doubt about what else may have been wrongly reported. In the end, I'm willing to look beyond this factual error and hope it was the only such lapse. After all the content deals with much wieghtier issues and I'll have to leave it to those who know those facts to raise any other inconsistencies. |
Grail (MSL quote), USA
<2008-04-22 00:00>
Julia Flynn Siler has accomplished something amazing with the House of Mondavi. It is clear the book was meticulously researched. Her experience as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal obviously guided her writing. Unlike some nonfiction books in which the author speculates where the facts end, Ms. Flynn Siler supports each element of the story with multiple sources. The book is not about Ms. Flynn Siler's opinions of what could have happened. It is about the complex, fascinating web that is the Mondavis. That said, the story reads almost like a novel, and at times is a page-turner. Some reviewers have complained about typos in the text, but any typos are due to a lapse at the copyediting stage and have little if anything to do with Ms. Flynn Siler or the quality of the story being told. The House of Mondavi is a engaging, compelling read which deserves accolades for its substance. |
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