<\/p>\n
Napa’s famous Robert Mondavi Winery is set to reopen following a three-year closure for a major renovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
A posh retail shop at the new Mondavi.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
Historic Mondavi vintages on display in a wine library, which includes a tiny tasting room in the bell tower.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u00a0Tastings now start at $60 \u2014 up from $45 before the closure, but below the regional average.<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
Guests can relax and sip wine in numerous outdoor cabanas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Robert\u00a0Mondavi Winery 2022 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and a 60th Anniversary Commemorative Edition Cabernet Sauvignon.<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
The reception area, designed to resemble Mondavi\u2019s former living room, features photos of the Mondavi family adorning the walls.<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
The mezzanine is the showpiece of the new winery, which has been upgraded with high-tech equipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
An outdoor lounge area is flanked by a new water feature.<\/p>\n
Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n
Robert\u00a0Mondavi at his winery in 2003, celebrating his 90th birthday.<\/p>\n
John Storey\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
For decades, Robert Mondavi Winery was the pinnacle of Napa Valley wine tourism. The first in the wine region to build a dedicated visitor center in 1966, its founder, Robert Mondavi, practically invented Wine Country hospitality. But by the 1990s, that image began to slip. Mondavi\u2019s successful Woodbridge brand of cheaper, mass-produced wines diluted the Napa winery\u2019s reputation. In 1993, he took the company public, which intensified the pressure to deliver growth at the expense of quality.<\/p>\n
In 2004, the winery was sold<\/a> to conglomerate Constellation Brands for roughly $1 billion. Newer, fancier estates started popping up all over Napa Valley, such as Alpha Omega and Round Pond. Mondavi found itself relegated to a \u201cgateway\u201d or \u201cDisneyland winery<\/a>,\u201d known for its distinct, Mission-style architecture and theme park-sized crowds of first-timers arriving on tour buses to the tune of more than 350,000 visitors per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The wine hospitality landscape Mondavi had defined has also shifted dramatically. Since 2016, Napa Valley wine tasting fees have more than doubled<\/a>, averaging $75 for the standard experience in 2023<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 earning the region a reputation for being too expensive, too exclusive\u00a0\u2014 while post-pandemic, many wineries no longer allow walk-ins<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Vineyard Room\u201d is the largest tasting space at Mondavi.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n On April 20, following a three-year closure, Robert Mondavi Winery will debut a major transformation. The year\u2019s most anticipated California winery opening, it is arguably the most dramatic\u00a0\u2014 and dramatically expensive\u00a0\u2014 Napa Valley winery renovation in history. The stakes are appropriately enormous: The ambitions of the new Mondavi are no less than revitalizing the reputation of Napa Valley\u2019s most famous winery; re-establishing its owner, Constellation, as a defining wine industry power player; and reenergizing tourism in Napa Valley, which remains in the midst of a multi-year slowdown as the wine industry crisis approaches its nadir.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mondavi\u2019s metamorphosis is apparent from the moment you walk under its signature arch. The perfectly manicured green lawn at the center of the property, where Mondavi previously hosted its annual summer concert series \u2014 drawing names like Ella Fitzgerald and Sheryl Crow \u2014 has been replaced by a wild botanical garden that\u2019s representative of the natural Napa Valley landscape. Walking paths meander through native and drought-resistant trees, plants, grasses and flowers. Before, \u201ceveryone was afraid to walk\u201d on the lawn, which \u201chad a suburban feel to it,\u201d said lead architect David Darling, co-founder of Aidlin Darling Design.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The only remaining parallel to Disneyland is Mondavi\u2019s scale: The winery, which felt increasingly old-fashioned, now appears as a sprawling, glass-walled tech campus seemingly uprooted from Silicon Valley and dropped in the middle of a vineyard. No part of the estate was left untouched\u00a0\u2014 even the iconic arch and tower were painstakingly restored\u00a0\u2014 while several new buildings and outdoor spaces were constructed, making it appear double the original size.\u00a0 Unlike before, Mondavi\u2019s famed To Kalon vineyard is the focal point of the property, viewable from nearly every vantage point, while the design pays homage to the winery\u2019s six decades of history without getting hokey. If Robert Mondavi, a marketing mastermind who died in 2008<\/a>, were here today, it\u2019s easy to imagine that his vision for the next era of Mondavi might look something like this: majestic, vast and the first of its kind.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The renovation merged Mondavi’s original architecture with new, modern construction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n Visitors enter through the arch and the original \u201cVisitors Welcome\u201d sign to check in. Their visit begins in a casual living room designed to resemble Mondavi\u2019s former living space, featuring a gallery wall of old family and winery photos. The room curves around to a large basalt tasting bar with a view of the vineyard and Hwy 29. It\u2019s here, where the original structures merge with the new construction, that the \u201cnexus of old and new\u201d begins, Darling said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Outside, a covered outdoor lounge connects to a completely new wing designed for culinary experiences. Mondavi was one of the first Napa Valley wineries to integrate food into its tastings and inaugurated a \u201cGreat Chefs\u201d program, hosting Julia Child and Alice Waters, among others. The new Mondavi Table experience ($95), which includes a three-course, family-style feast alongside wines, costs less than many other Napa Valley food and wine experiences<\/a>. (The nearby\u00a0Cakebread Cellars, for example, charges $125 for a tasting with four \u201cbites.\u201d)<\/p>\n This new wing has dining tables set in a posh veranda, which leads into a grand room with floor-to-ceiling windows and earthen walls made from construction waste and gravel, a nod to the vineyard\u00a0terroir. An expansive terrace overlooks the vines.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On the other side of the garden, the north wing includes a wine library with old bottles and artifacts, plus a tiny, hidden tasting space inside the bell tower, which was once used as a storage room. There are also private tasting spaces for Constellation\u2019s To Kalon Collective, featuring the Schrader, Double Diamond and To Kalon Vineyard Company brands, which don\u2019t have their own tasting rooms. Outside, private cabanas offer small groups a space to sip and relax.<\/p>\n An outdoor terrace looks over the vineyard.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n Not all visitors will get to see the impressive new winery, which was modernized with the latest high-tech winemaking equipment. (For that, you\u2019ll need to book the Legend Tasting and Tour, $150.) The showpiece is the mezzanine, where a catwalk takes visitors above the working winery and ends at a panoramic view of the vineyards and Mayacamas mountains. The ceiling is artfully covered in wine staves, repurposed from Mondavi\u2019s former oak wine tanks; look closely, and you can see the peg holes. These staves were used for various walls and ceilings throughout the property. \u201cIt keeps the soul of this room and how it was originally built,\u201d said Mondavi head winemaker Kurtis Ogasawara, adding that the winery\u2019s new \u201cbells and whistles\u201d will enable his team to \u201cunlock a bit more potential in our vineyards\u201d and thus improve the quality of the wines.<\/p>\n Mondavi is far from the first classic Napa Valley winery to undergo a major renovation<\/a>. If anything, it is late, trailing behind a swath of others, including Charles Krug (owned by Mondavi\u2019s brother Peter\u2019s family), Clos Du Val, Louis M. Martini, Heitz, V. Sattui<\/a> and Stony Hill<\/a>. All of those undertakings were flashy and expensive, but none have been quite as ambitious as Mondavi\u2019s. Constellation would not provide details on the cost of the renovation, but the figure is likely in the hundreds of millions.<\/p>\n A private tasting space for large groups is set within a barrel room.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n The reopening comes at a time of distress, not only for the wine business but also for Constellation, and could serve as a testament to the company\u2019s commitment to the premium side of the wine business, which also includes Napa Valley brands Schrader and Prisoner Wine Co<\/a>. Constellation began the design process in 2020, a few years before the wine industry entered a global crisis<\/a>. Six years later, wine consumption, sales, and tourism have steadily declined, and Constellation has been actively divesting from the wine business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 2021, the company offloaded 30 of its lower-priced brands<\/a> to Gallo for $810 million. Last April, it sold the remainder to its entry-level brands<\/a>, including Woodbridge and Robert Mondavi Private Selection, both formerly under the Mondavi umbrella, to the Wine Group. In January, it closed a historic Madera production facility<\/a> and laid off more than 200 workers. Constellation fell from the fifth-largest U.S. wine company in 2025 to the 28th-largest in 2026, according to Wine Business<\/a>. It\u2019s now more of a titan of the beer business, owning the brand licenses to import and sell Modelo, the top-selling beer in the country, along with Corona and Pacifico. Its wine and spirits segment made up just 9% of fourth-quarter sales, according to an earnings report released last week<\/a>; during a follow-up analyst call, chief financial officer Garth Hankinson admitted to \u201ctasting room softness in our Napa-based wineries,\u201d according to the Press Democrat<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n The landscaping was also completely transformed during the renovation to better reflect the natural Napa environment.<\/p>\n Brian L. Frank\/Special to the Chronicle<\/p>\n Constellation has left cheap wine behind and the new Mondavi, no longer the everyman\u2019s winery, serves as proof. It is undeniably upscale and while it still accepts walk-ins, tastings are less affordable starting at $60\u00a0\u2014 up from $45 before the closure (but below the regional average). It\u2019s also now only partly family-friendly<\/a>; children can tag along for the entry-level tasting.<\/p>\n The shift towards luxury was probably necessary for\u00a0Mondavi to preserve its legacy, even at the cost of some accessibility. Whether or not the arch and tower can continue as Napa Valley\u2019s proverbial gateway remains to be seen. People used to call it \u201cthe unofficial Napa Valley Welcome Center,\u201d Mondavi brand director Peggy Hemphill said. \u201cI really hope that can be true again.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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