The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty Book

The Mondavi family is well known as one of the first California wine empires and this book covers their beginnings from the moment founder Cesare Mondavi arrived at Ellis Island in the early 1900s to the downfall of the empire.

While this is basically a biography of the members of the Mondavi family, it is also instructional in describing the history of wine in California. For me, that was really the most interesting part of the book. I picked this up in the hopes that it would be an involving picture of why a billion dollar company was torn asunder by family feuding and hubris. While the research was certainly there, I just never got my head wrapped around any of the family, as none of them exactly garnered respect, apart from the founders.

But it was interesting to read about grape production versus wine-making and the importance of California's emergence into elite wine-making, so it wasn't a complete waste. Just not very innervating.

Book Season = Summer (chablis, chardonnay)