(WineEnthusiast) - Margrit Mondavi, grande dame of the Napa Valley, and a famously influential part of California’s food and wine movement, has died at the age of 91.

Mondavi passed away on Friday, September 2, 2016, after a battle with cancer. She is survived by three children, six grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and countless mourners worldwide who admired her ability to bring people together around food, wine, art and music.

Margrit Biever Mondavi was in the midst of a very full life by the time she met her future second husband, Robert Mondavi. Born in Switzerland, she had lived in Europe, Japan and different parts of the United States before settling in Napa. She had raised three children and, an instinctively attuned home chef, nurtured a deep and evolving understanding of wine and food.

The couple met at Robert Mondavi Winery where Margrit was first a tour guide and then the head of public relations. They married in 1980. Together they became a magical tour de force for California wine for the next three decades, before the passing of Mr. Mondavi in 2008.

“We always felt it would be a great partnership,” she told me of their courtship. “He would say ‘what are we going to do about it?’”

A speaker of many European languages, including German, French, Italian and Spanish, the eternally energetic and intellectually curious Mrs. Mondavi contributed much to the winery and her new husband’s love of food, art, music and philanthropy.

“He was a Stanford graduate but art had no home in his life,” she said. “I schlepped him to his first opera, believe me it was hard to keep him there for three hours. The next year he wanted to have a subscription. Music, art, everything became a part of him.”