Summer Wine Read: Harvests of Joy

“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. Highly engaging, and occasionally boastful (why not? The guy pretty much put Napa Valley on the map), 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 winery. With no money and only a desire to be the best, friends loaned Mondavi the majority of the considerable capital needed ($150-thousand in 1966!) and he managed to secure a $50-thousand loan from the bank to cover the rest.

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 getting into the wine business himself as 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 if you have even only a vague interest in business, Mondavi’s story will thrill and delight you.

However, the heavier 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 through out the book. His dad’s early, rustic, homemade wine, kept in barrels under the stairs and enjoyed with these exceptional 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 behind his book:

“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.

No matter your interest: wine, food, business, success stories, Harvests of Joy has it.