Life's Pleasures Quote by Robert Mondavi

Mondavi is selling rebellion in a bottle, and he does it with a wink that sounds democratic while quietly protecting a premium brand world. On the surface, the line is a friendly permission slip: stop outsourcing your palate to gatekeepers and trust your own taste. It lands because it flatters the listener twice. First, it frames enjoyment as a personal right rather than a test you can fail. Second, it positions the speaker as the ally who liberates you from intimidation culture.

The subtext is more strategic. Wine has long depended on status machinery: critics, scores, appellations, insider vocabulary. That ecosystem can elevate a label, but it can also freeze newcomers out. Mondavi, a key architect of American wine’s postwar rise, understood that growth requires lowering the social penalty of getting it “wrong.” “Drink what you like” is an anti-snob slogan that invites the mass market in, which is good for wine generally and for ambitious producers specifically.

There’s also a sly reframing of authority. He doesn’t attack critics outright; he demotes them. The phrase “instead of relying totally” concedes they have a role, just not a monopoly. That’s classic business pragmatism: keep the prestige pipeline intact while telling consumers they don’t need it to participate.

In context, this reads like a post-1970s American confidence play, when Napa was trying to compete with old-world mystique. Mondavi’s message turns wine from a cultural exam into a lifestyle choice, and in doing so, makes the whole category bigger, more approachable, and easier to buy into.