Mike Grgich dies at 100; winemaker helped make Napa Valley world famous

The victories Grgich and other Napa winemakers scored over their French counterparts immortalized the event as the "Judgment of Paris," which catapulted high-end California wines into high esteem worldwide.

By Howard Yune | Napa Valley Register

Miljenko (Mike) Grgich, the Croatian immigrant whose wines helped the Napa Valley rival France’s best as never before, died early Wednesday at age 100.

Grgich died in his sleep at his Calistoga home with family members by his side, according to Sally Camm, spokesperson for Grgich Hills Estate, the Rutherford winery he co-founded in the 1970s.

“Saddened to learn of the passing of Mike Grgich,” U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said in a statement. “Mike was a trailblazing winemaker and developed many of the techniques that have helped make Napa Valley wine the best in the world.

“Mike’s legacy will be remembered for generations to come and his efforts have helped pave the way for future innovations in winemaking. He made immeasurable contributions to the winemaking community and to our Valley, and he will be sorely missed.”

While at Chateau Montelena, he created the 1973 Chardonnay that was entered into the Paris Wine Tasting in 1976. The victories Grgich and other Napa winemakers scored over their established French counterparts immortalized the event as the “Judgment of Paris,” which catapulted high-end California wines into high esteem worldwide.

A year after the Paris tasting, Grgich partnered with Austin E. Hills, and the two men co-founded Grgich Hills Estate using Hills’ funds from the sale of his family’s Hills Bros. coffee company. The winery became one of the anchors of the Napa Valley grape growing industry, its early reputation burnished when one of its earliest wines topped a list of 221 Chardonnays in a Chicago tasting.

The youngest of 11 children, Miljenko Grgic (he later added ‘h’ to his name after moving to America) was born in the Croatian village of Desne in the former Yugoslavia.

“My mother breastfed me until I was 2½,” Grgich told The Weekly Calistogan in a 2003 interview. “Then she told me, ‘No more milk.’ I started to cry and said, ‘Momma, I’m going to die.’ She gave me some watered-down wine. … I started stomping grapes when I was 3. I never missed a harvest since then.”

Grgich, following in his father’s path, began pursuing a winemaking career after World War II, studying winemaking at the University of Zagreb. Opposing Yugoslavia’s communist postwar regime, he left Croatia in 1957 — studying in Germany and finally reaching St. Helena in 1958 after answering a want ad from Lee Stewart, founder of Chateau Souverain, one of the Napa Valley wineries to rise after the repeal of Prohibition.

Grgich later worked for another pioneering Napa winemaker, André Tchelistcheff of Beaulieu Vineyard, before going on to Robert Mondavi Winery. His first vintage there, a 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon, was hailed by Wine Spectator magazine as “possibly the best Cab ever made in California,” Grgich Hills said in a statement.

It was at Grgich’s next stop that he created one of the wines that forever altered perceptions about how California wines stood next to those of Europe.

At the Paris Tasting — organized in celebration of the U.S. bicentennial of 1976 — a Grgich-created Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena was judged superior to its French rivals, as was Napa Cabernet from Warren Winarski’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellar.

Grgich talked of bringing out the natural character of wines — doing everything to enable wines to grow themselves and interfering as little as possible. “My philosophy is, I’m not a winemaker, but a winesitter,” he said.

As communist regimes in Eastern Europe began to crumble in 1989, Grgich invested much time into reviving winemaking in his native Croatia, which gained independence in 1991. He opened Grgić Vina, a local winery drawing on local vines, and provided scholarships that allowed young Croats to study winemaking in the U.S.

In his final years, Grgich lent his support to the organization Roots for Peace, which removes land mines and reclaims farmland in war-torn nations including Croatia, which endured warfare as Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s.

Grgich passed control of his namesake winery in 2018 to his daughter Violet Grgich, now its president, and to his grand-nephew, winemaker and vice president Ivo Jeramaz, whom he helped move to the U.S. in 1986.

“In my life, I have had real miracles,” the winemaker wrote in his 2016 memoir “A Glass Full of Miracles.” “They were between God and me, and when I was offered one, I accepted it with all of my heart and soul, with gratitude. Be on the watch for miracles in your own life.”

Funeral services for Grgich will be private, according to spokesperson Camm. A public celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Napa Valley Register reporter Barry Eberling contributed to this report.

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