When your family name is synonymous with the development of the U.S. wine industry, the responsibility to carry the name could have been too much to endure. Had Tim Mondavi chosen an industry other than wine, he would not have been the first scion of a famous family to walk away from the business, but the son of Robert Mondavi chose to embrace the name.

“My father took us to the stars,” Tim Mondavi said, “and now Continuum is the one wine around which our family's rich and distinguished history has a bright future. Everyone who works for us knows that.” He is speaking of Continuum, a Napa Valley red wine available in Oklahoma that carries on the tradition of the Mondavi family, arguably the First Family of California winemaking, and indeed, the development of world-class wines in America.