Books

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

By Julia Flynn Siler

A fascinating immigrant-family saga and unusual business narrative may be found in The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty (Gotham Books) by Julia Flynn Siler of The Wall Street Journal and formerly of BusinessWeek. Paterfamilias Cesare Mondavi began the family enterprise with an early-20th century fruit-wholesaling business. In the 1940s, the family moved into winemaking with the purchase of the Charles Krug Winery. But the Mondavis would prove to be one of the most dysfunctional families in the history of U.S. industry, and after repeated feuds, by 2004 the company was on the block. It was a sad conclusion to a fascinating history filled with charismatic yet flawed characters.