Book Review: Harvest of Joy by Robert Mondavi
by Erin Henderson
"At the age of 52, I should have been a happy man."
And so begins Robert Mondavi's engrossing memoir of a life spent in the California wine business.
Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business is a highly engaging, and occasionally boastful recount to Mondavi's incredible journey. This 350 page autobiography has it all: rags to riches drama, family feuds, roller coaster markets, nail biting business competition, courage, faith and a little bit of love amongst the vines.
Written at the age of 85, nine years before his death, Mondavi candidly recounts the fist fight between he and his brother that kicked him out of his family-owned winery, Krug, and prompted him to start his own namesake business. With no money but a desire to be the best, friends loaned Mondavi the majority of the considerable capital needed ($150-thousand in 1966, which would be about 1.5 million today) and he managed to secure a $50-thousand loan from the bank to cover the rest.
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Broken into three sections called, "The Roots," The Flowering," and "The Harvest," Mondavi covers his entire life, from his early childhood in Minnesota to moving to California where his father bought and sold grapes, to eventually becoming a wine maker and later convincing his father to purchase the dilapidated Krug winery.
Business, competition, and an unquenchable thirst to win and to be "the best," is certainly central to this story – and even if you have only a vague interest in business, Mondavi's story will thrill and delight you.
Business aside, the central theme to this book is the love of quality food and wine. Mondavi's cherished memories of his "Mama Rosa's" cooking – hearty, healthy, delicious meals for full tables of visitors, boarders, family, and friends are constant throughout this tale. As is Mondavi's loving memories of his dad's rustic, homemade wine, kept in barrels under the stairs. This fairly primative stuff would be poured generously at all meals, including breakfast where the red wine would accompany a shot of rich, dark espresso.
Despite Mondavi's competitive nature, astute business acumen, and unrelenting drive to succeed, he suggests it's his love of good food and wine and the way meal times brings families together, which is the inspiration for his entire life.
"While Italian families like ours ate and drank as our parents and ancestors had for centuries, we were the exception," Mondavi writes in the first chapter. "We didn't grow up eating Velveeta; we ate parmigano, pecorino, and Gorgonzola. When I was a boy, everyone who came to my house loved my mother's cooking; I dreamed of inviting all of America into her kitchen to cook, taste her food, and sample some fine Italian wines. With one Sunday at her house, I felt sure we could convert the entire country to the joys of fine food and wine!"
It would be hard to read this book and not want to get into kitchen to whip up a pasta carbonara from scratch or head to the market for fresh ingredients for your homemade minestrone.
But it's not all great food, fine wine, and luxury. Mondavi talks candidly of the hard times, of which they were plenty. His split with his family, laughed at by peers and colleagues (hard for anyone, but especially tough for a man as proud as Robert Mondavi), and perhaps the most personal: how his dogged determination drove a wedge through his relationship with his kids, and ended his first marriage to their mother.
Even more raw and revealling, especially for a man of his generation, he admits, subtly, to beginning his relationship with Margrit Biever, the woman who would be come the second Mrs. Mondavi, while he was still with his first. That marriage lasted nearly 30 years, until his death. He attributes Margrit's sophisticated eye and cultured tastes for adding turning the winery into a fine art destination with beuatiful pieces displayed around the grounds. Margrit also started the summer concert series in the Mondavi vineyard (a very unique concept at the time), and championed the reconstruction of the Napa Valley Opera House and the Lincoln Theatre, as well as launching the Centre for the Performing Arts and creating a generous grant for arts students.
"Yes, Margrit is amazing. And she's been a godsend for me," writes Mondavi on page 296, recounting her impact on him. "She knows all my faults – better than I do!....In her shy, deft European way, Margrit removed my blinders, alleviated my tunnel vision, and opened me up to art, music, movies, and the spiritual side of life."
Mondavi eventually ends the book with 15 components he attributes to his phenomenal success, including being confident and courageous, generous, and staying flexible.
It seemed to serve him well.