Michael Mondavi Talks Family: Brand Integrity in a Global Wine Industry

In today’s global economy producing wine to please critics is a very real temptation. This temptation holds true for wine makers from the new world to the old, where having a 90 plus Parker rating can successfully sell your wine.

I asked Michael Mondavi how a family in the wine industry can effectively influence its brand, and this is what he had to say:

“To have integrity with the brand the wine has to have the style that the family likes. They can’t produce a wine to please the critics. They need to produce a wine to please themselves and their family. Ninety percent of the time if they do that, the customers will agree.”

Mondavi went on to say…

“When I started making wine in the sixties there weren’t a lot of wine critics. We were lucky. We didn’t have to please Robert Parker to get the 90 plus. That didn’t exist. So back then we were making wines that we felt were the style that we liked. We wanted to honor the terroir, the soil, the micro climate and we also wanted to put our personal style into it.”

While producing wine to please the critics may help you achieve technical perfection, the wine may lack the soul behind it to make it extraordinary.  Stay true to your vision and your customers are likely to follow.

Beaulieu Vineyard, Napa Valley. Photo courtesy of  Christopher Chan.