You're right - Mendeleev create his perodical law and corresponding table based on empirical data. But now the quantum mechanics is a theory which describe states of electrons into all of known elements of periodic table. All of existing courses of atomic and nuclear physics include chapter about Mendeleev's table.
Do not forget Mendeleev was a good piano player and very close friend of prominent musicians (Borodin was a colleague of mendeleev, a valent chemist not only an outstanding composer)...the idea of periods of 8 members came diectly from the concept of octave in music....