Our great-grandparents, Cesare and Rosa Mondavi, purchased Charles Krug Winery shortly after the end of prohibition. It was Cesare and Rosa’s passion, determination, and vision that began to shape Napa Valley as one of California’s premium wine regions. Our grandparents, Peter Sr. and Blanche, took over the winery operations in 1966. After years of research, our grandfather introduced revolutionary winemaking techniques commonly used today, including cold fermentation, cold sterile filtration, and aging wine in French oak barrels – techniques we implement in the winemaking of Dark Matter Wines. Our grandfather worked closely with each of us to continue the legacy of the Mondavi Family until he passed away at the wise age of 101.
Starting at the spry age of 10, each of us – Angelina, Alycia, Riana, and Giovanna – spent our summers learning the family business. A typical summer day for us entailed odd jobs throughout the winery, including schlepping hoses, cleaning tanks, soaking bottles, pulling samples, and running analyses. A family tradition of summer winery jobs alongside our grandfather and father led each of us to love the wine industry.
Paying respect to the generations before us, we launched Dark Matter Wines in 2005 and purchased Aloft Wines in 2017. Although Dark Matter Wines is far from traditional, our mission is to create wines with the same passion and devotion as the generations before us.
We are forever grateful to our mentors that have helped to make this project a reality – Our grandfather Peter Mondavi Sr., our Father Marc, our Mother Janice, Kathy Simpson (Alycia’s personal mentor) a marketing guru, and our viticulturist Jim Barbour.
Founded and operated by Gigi Mondavi, DMSB’13