Career
Under her direction, Robert Mondavi Winery developed original cultural and culinary arts programs. Margrit played a key role in securing the downtown Napa location for the center, which opened in November 2001. A native of Appenzell, Switzerland, Margrit was raised in her family home overlooking Lake Maggiore, in the canton of Ticino.
When Margrit started working at Robert Mondavi Winery, there were very few visitors frequenting Napa Valley.
One of the first things Margrit did was establish a fine arts program at the winery that brought many different artists to the winery including Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud and Nathan Oliveira. Margrit founded the winery’s Summer Music Festival in 1969 as a benefit for the Napa Valley Symphony.
This concert series has hosted many jazz, Rhythm & Blues and popular artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte and Tony Bennett. The Robert Mondavi Summer Jazz Festival opens with the New Orleans Jazz Band Preservation Hall.
In 1984, the Festival of Winter Classical Concert Series was created, with the proceeds benefiting local musical organizations like the Napa Valley Opera.
Together with Veronica di Rosa, Margrit and a small group of other Napa Valley art lovers formed a board of directors to rebuild the original 19th-century opera house in the city of Napa. She organized fundraising events, including art auctions, to keep the opera house alive. In 1998, the opera raised significant funds for the restoration as part of a challenge grant from Margrit and Robert Mondavi.
The renovated opera house opened in October 2002.
After ten years at Robert Mondavi Winery, Margrit introduced a program of cooking classes. She introduced the Great Chefs of France and the Great Chefs of America programs that are now known simply as Great Chefs at Robert Mondavi Winery.
Robert and Margrit Mondavi were also major patrons of the restoration of the Lincoln Theatre in Yountville which was reopened in early 2005. Also in 2001, Margrit and Robert made a substantial personal gift to the University of California at Davis to establish the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, and to launch the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts which opened in October 2002.
In addition, the couple continue to support the Oxbow School, a new art school in Napa that gives grants to and provides instruction for art students in their junior year of high school.
