A toast to Robert Mondavi

Here's to you Bob. Tonight I'm going to go through the cellar for the best of your bottles and drink it in your honor. As I type this, the lawyers, investment bankers and other hangers-on are finishing up the paperwork to close the sale of your company tonight. So, in your honor I drink to the man who:

• at nearly 60 years of age, left the easy life at his family's winery and struck out on his own to form one of the most recognizable wine brands in the world. How many self-made men make their fortune after age 60? Rembarkable.
• gave us Fume Blanc. Whether you like oak in your Sauvignon Blanc or not, its these types of innovations that made the man a legend.
• put premium California wines on the map by refusing to make anything less than the best
• said "even if I was going to be a ditchdigger, I'd try to be the best ditch digger you ever saw"
• said that after closing this latest chapter in his life, he just have to "start all over again"

And my favorite quote from Bob "all things in moderation, including moderation". Bob, tonight I drink to you, and in your honor, I vow to do it without moderation.

Cheers and good luck on your next venture, young man.