MARGRIT MONDAVI

Margrit Biever Mondavi is a Napa Valley legend. A pioneering woman of the modern-day California wine industry, she joined the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1967. She immediately began to develop programs that expressed her lifelong interest in uniting wine with fine arts, music and culinary artistry, changing the face of American wine culture. Under Margrit's direction, the Robert Mondavi Winery became a showplace for painters, sculptors, photographers, jazz and classical musicians and the great chefs and winemakers of the world. A working artist herself, Margrit trained in Switzerland and works with watercolors, crayons and acrylic paints.

With her husband, Robert Mondavi, Margrit was a founding patron of COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. The couple founded the University of California at Davis' Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts and Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science; they also support the Oxbow School. Proceeds from the Robert Mondavi Winery Summer Music Festival benefit the Napa Valley Symphony, music programs of the Napa Valley Unified School District, and the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.