Honoring Margrit Biever Mondavi

HONORING MARGRIT BIEVER MONDAVI -- (Extensions of Remarks - September 09, 2004)

SPEECH OF HON. MIKE THOMPSON
CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004

Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker I rise today to honor my good friend Margrit Biever Mondavi, a woman whose name is synonymous with good food, fine wine and great art the world over.

Mr. Speaker, we in the Napa Valley know that wine and food, like music and art, are sensory experiences meant to be savored. When these elements are combined, the result can be a masterpiece. We owe much of our appreciation to Ms. Mondavi's pioneering efforts in uniting these elements and in sharing her vision with us.

She joined the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1967 and created a showplace for artists, musicians, great chefs and winemakers. She also paired cooking classes with fine wine in the Great Chefs of France and the Great Chefs of American series at the winery. This internationally respected culinary series is now simply known as Great Chefs at Robert Mondavi Winery.

In 2003 she and her daughter Annie Roberts, the Executive Chef at Robert Mondavi Winery, earned the "Best in the World" distinction at the Gourmand World Cookbook awards for their collection of recipes and stories, "Annie & Margrit: Recipes and Stories from the Robert Mondavi Kitchen."

With her husband Robert Mondavi, whom she married in 1980, Margrit realized another dream with the opening in 2001 of COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in downtown Napa. This was followed the same year with a gift to the University of California at Davis to seed the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science and the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Ms. Mondavi was also instrumental in rebuilding the original 18th Century Opera House in Napa and helped raise funds to restore this community treasure.

As a working artist herself, Margrit Biever Mondavi has created a line of home accessories for the Mondavi Winery. She is also an accomplished linguist and often translates her husband's speeches when they travel the world together promoting wine, food and the arts.

Mr. Speaker, Margrit Biever Mondavi is one of a kind, a pioneer and a visionary who has taught us all to love life a little bit more and to embrace the richness of our culture. Napa County is honoring our First Lady of wine, food and the arts for her many accomplishments and it is appropriate that we also recognize her here today.

END