Miljenko “Mike” Grgich arrived in Napa Valley in 1958 with a viticulture and oenology education and a background rooted in Croatian winemaking. He crafted a 1969 Cabernet that helped raise Robert Mondavi’s profile, then moved to Chateau Montelena where he produced the Chardonnay that became central to the 1976 Judgment of Paris. The blind tasting, organized by Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher for the American Bicentennial, matched California wines against top French Burgundies and Bordeaux under an all-French judging panel. The Chardonnay won overall, while Stag’s Leap won the red portion, creating major international reverberations and encouraging more frequent wine enjoyment, especially on the West Coast.
"Miljenko “Mike” Grgich arrived in Napa Valley in 1958 with little more than a dream and a university degree in viticulture and oenology. He had grown up in a small, poor village in Croatia, where wine wasn't a luxury it was simply life. “My father grew up actually stomping grapes and making wine,” recalls his daughter Violet, now President of Grgich Hills Estate, who has been working at the winery since 1977."
"The Judgment of Paris was, in Violet's telling, almost accidental in its ambition. Wine merchant Steven Spurrier and colleague Patricia Gallagher organized a blind tasting to celebrate the American Bicentennial, pitting California wines against the finest French Burgundies and Bordeaux before an all-French panel of professional judges. The odds were deliberately stacked. The result was seismic."
"“The number one winner overall was the Chardonnay that my father made at Chateau Montelena,” says Violet, “and Stag's Leap won the red portion, so two Napa Valley wineries.” The reverberations were felt far beyond California. “I think it also encouraged, particularly people on the West Coast, to start enjoying wine a little bit more often, not just as something for”"
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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