Robert Mondavi, the pioneering vintner who put California wine country on the map, is dead at 94. Mondavi died at his Napa Valley home Friday, said Mia Malm, spokeswoman for the Robert Mondavi Winery. Born in Virginia, Minnesota, Mondavi got an economics degree from Stanford University in the 1930s and went to work at the Charles Krug Winery, which his Italian-born parents had bought after moving to California from Minnesota. Mondavi, who was 52 and a winemaking veteran in 1966 when he opened the winery that would help turn the NapaValley into a world center of the industry, traveled the world into his 90s as an enthusiastic ambassador for wine.

When Mondavi opened his winery, California was still primarily known for cheaper wines. But he set out to change that, championing use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, all commonplace in the industry today. He also made the bold move of holding blind tastings between his own and European wines. His confidence that California could compete with the world's best was rewarded in 1976 when California wines beat some well-known French vintages in the famous tasting known as the Judgment of Paris. Mondavi also was a major philanthropist, giving millions to charity. "It is hard to imagine anyone having more of a lasting impact on California's $20 billion-a-year wine industry than Robert Mondavi," Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. In turn, Mondavi, said the governor, was "a tireless entrepreneur who transformed how the world felt about California wine, and an unforgettable personality to everyone who knew him."