Robert Mondavi, the man who put California wine on the map, died Friday at his Yountville home in the Napa Valley. He was 94. "The son of an Italian-born grape wholesaler from the Central Valley, Mondavi was, at the end of his life, one of the best-known figures in American viticulture, with a name that was almost synonymous with California wine. His cabernets and chardonnays have been served at the White House and sold by the glass at Disney theme parks. His Cain-and-Abel exile from his family business after a fistfight with his brother was the source of legend...At a time when the phrase "fine domestic wine" was considered an oxymoron in the United States, he insisted that California wine could be positioned as a status symbol -- a strategy that cleared the way for the modern era of $2,000 cult bottles of Screaming Eagle and trophy wineries." [LAT]

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