Carlo Mondavi in the vineyards

Profile: Carlo Mondavi of RAEN Winery on the Sonoma Coast

Anne Krebiehl MW, 26.08.2021

Carlo and Dante Mondavi are the scions of one of California‘s most influential wine dynasties. Their family history shows that new beginnings are in their blood. RAEN Winery, on the Sonoma Coast, is both a continuation and a fresh start.

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It was Carlo and Dante Mondavi‘s great-grandparents Rosa and Cesare Mondavi who left their native Italy to start a new life in California. Their grandfather, Robert Mondavi, Rosa and Cesare’s son, founded his eponymous winery in Napa Valley in 1966 and the groundbreaking Franco-Californian joint venture Opus One in 1980. Family strife led to the sale of the estate in 2004, but Robert’s children and grandchildren all started over in the wine business. “Every time my family has had a setback, and we have had major setbacks, here’s what we do: you fall down, you get back up,“ Mondavi says when asked about his family history. “When my family sold the Robert Mondavi Winery in 2004, it was not something we had planned. My father and grandfather took everything and began Continuum.“ At the time, Mondavi recalls, his grandfather was the first to ask: “What’s next?“

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