Business Day  MANAGEMENT; Mondavi's Battle Royal  Published:
July 19, 2000  The United States is famous for its corporate
marketing. Think Coke and McDonald's. France is famous for its
fine wines. Think Chateau Lafite and Chateau Latour.  Imagine,
then, an American juggernaut like the Robert Mondavi Corporation
wandering into a French village like this one that prides itself
on its centuries-old vineyards. Mondavi, the big wine company
from Napa Valley, Calif., announces its plans to rip down a
swath of publicly owned forest to create its own top-of-the-line
vines, thereby adding panache to its well-known brand name.  In
an area where distrust of pervasive American culture has been on
the boil of late, the intrusion was bound to light a fire among
some locals. In fact, it has brought on the most adventuresome
management hurdle yet in the career of David Pearson, Mondavi's
top executive in France.  Mr. Pearson, 38, an oenologist from
San Diego who is fluent in French, spent a year in the
mid-1980's working wit