NAPA, Calif. -- 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.

An enthusiastic ambassador for the health benefits of moderate consumption of wine, and of California wine in particular, Mondavi had traveled the world into his 90s, promoting the cultural and social benefits of wine.

Born in Virginia, Minn., 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.

He married his high school sweetheart, Marjorie Declusin in 1937 and they had three children, Michael, Marcia and Tim.

For 20 years, the winery was a family business. But Robert and Peter, the younger brother by 14 months, clashed frequently. Robert Mondavi had ambitious plans for the winery; Peter Mondavi had a more conservative style. According to Robert Mondavi's autobiography "Harvests of Joy," matters came to a head in November 1965 when the brothers got into a fist fight.

"When it was all over, there were no apologies and no handshake," wrote Robert Mondavi.

A long and bitter legal fight ensued.

In 1966, at the age of 52 and using borrowed money, Mondavi started over, opening his own winery.

There, he championed the use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels. He introduced blind tastings in Napa Valley. His winery was also among the first to go public.

Always convinced that California wines could compete with the European greats, Mondavi engaged in the first French-American wine venture when he formed a limited partnership with the legendary French vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild to grow and make the ultra-premium Opus One at Oakville. The venture's first vintage was in 1979.

In the late 1970s, Mondavi's first marriage ended; in his autobiography "Harvests of Joy," he wrote that his single-minded pursuit of the wine business was partly to blame. In 1980, he married a second time, to Margrit Biever, a native of Switzerland who had worked at the Mondavi winery since the late '60s.

By the mid-1990s, Mondavi had turned over operation of the company to his sons. But like their father and uncle before them, Tim and Michael clashed over management styles.

More troubles emerged as a grape glut soured the wine market in 2002 and lower-priced wines in the Mondavi portfolio faced tough competition from cheaper Australian imports and domestic brands like California's Two Buck Chuck.

Also a problem were the millions in charitable donations Mondavi and Margrit had pledged, including helping found Copia, The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, in Napa and giving $35 million to the University of California, Davis.

In her 2007 book, "The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty," author Julia Flynn Siler wrote that declining stock prices later left Mondavi in danger of not being able to cover the millions in gifts he and Margrit had promised.

A corporate restructuring in August 2004 boosted the stock price, but undercut the family's control of the company. In November 2004, the company accepted a buyout worth $1.3 billion from Fairport, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands.

By that time, Michael Mondavi, who disagreed with the board strategy, had already left the company. Tim Mondavi also loosened ties to the company.

In a bittersweet moment, formerly estranged branches of the family came together after the sale when Robert and Peter Mondavi, aided by members of the younger generation, made wine together for the first time in 40 years. Using a 50-50 split of grapes from Robert Mondavi and Peter Mondavi family vineyards, the brothers made one barrel of a cabernet blend that sold for $401,000 at the 2005 Napa Valley wine auction.

The auction lot was called "Ancora Una Volta," or "Once Again."