Carlo Mondavi

ENTREPRENEUR GRANDSON OF ROBERT MONDAVI

From a young age, I knew I wanted to make wine. I grew up in our Napa Valley vineyard with my brother and sisters, and during harvest the workers’ singing would wake me up. I’d jump out there and pick grapes with them. My father, Tim, made the wines, while my grandfather, Robert, promoted them. At 16, I started working in the wine cellar, but my family didn’t make it easy to join the business. To understand the challenge of running a successful company, we had to first get an M.B.A. and start our own. When I was 22, I was in the cellar, shoveling pomace [the leftover skins, seeds, and pulp from crushed grapes], when I noticed its incredible aroma. What if I could make something with it? This led me to start up a skin-care company, Davi, in 2003. The next year, a perfect storm hit. We never intended to sell Robert Mondavi Winery, but there was, for lack of a better explanation, a hostile takeover. It turned out to be the best thing that could’ve happened. My family took everything from the sale and invested it in Continuum Estate, bringing us back to our craft of making fine wine. While we have focused on Continuum, my brother, Dante, and I have wanted to make our own wine ever since our grandfather took us to Europe. He showed us the vineyards that inspired him to start his winery, and I fell in love with Burgundy. This lit a fire in my belly to make the absolute best pinot noir. Last year, Dante and I started Raen. We released our first bottles this past summer. From when I wake up to when I go to bed, I think about wine. We think of it not as a business, but as an art form, and we’re trying to accomplish art at the highest level.