Grgich Hills Estate

1829 St. Helena Hwy. Rutherford, CA 94573

Website: http://www.grgich.com/

Grgich Hills Estate is a small family winery founded by Miljenko (Mike) Grgich and Austin Hills from the Hills Bros. Coffee family.  Today the winery is run by Mike Grgich, his daughter Violet, and his nephew Ivo Jeramaz.  I am intrigued by the story of Mike Grgich and his incredible drive to own a successful winery. He was born in Croatia in 1923 as the youngest of 11 children. His family did not have much money and sustained their own farm to produce food, milk, and cheese to feed the family. They also produced wine, keeping half for themselves and selling the other half to villagers. According to George Taber’s “Judgment of Paris”, Mike’s mother gave him a mixture of water and wine to drink as soon as he stopped nursing and he was crushing grapes with his feet at age 3.*

Mike later went on to study viticulture and enology at the University of Zagreb and then took a fellowship in West Germany to leave the strife of Communist controlled Yugoslavia. His ultimate goal was to immigrate to the United States. Mike worked very hard to make a living and never gave up on his dream. Once he arrived in St. Helena for the first time, he worked for many noteworthy wineries and winemakers, including Lee Stewart of Souverain Cellars, André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyards, and Robert Mondavi. One of the most momentous times of his career occurred when he became a limited partner at Chateau Montelena where he produced the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the 1976 blind tasting in Paris, proving to the world that California was capable of making premium wines. Soon after the Paris tasting, Mike left Chateau Montelena to start his own winery with partner Austin Hills and broke ground for the Grgich Hills winery in Rutherford on July 4, 1977. Mike’s dream had finally come true!  Mike stuck to his roots and established another winery in Croatia in 1996.  He was inducted into the Vintner’s Hall of Fame in 2008 for his lifetime achievements.

Grgich Hills Estate Winery

Mike’s passion for wine comes through at the Grgich Hills Estate winery. The winery produces high quality wines that are all Biodynamically certified. Biodynamic farming is the philosophy that the vineyard is a living organism, and that creating a balance with nature and following earth’s natural cycles will produce better grapes.   Many wineries are now turning to this method of farming. When my husband and I visited the winery, Mike was walking around the tasting room and took the time to take a picture with us. The staff member who was conducting our tasting informed us that Mike is often found roaming around the winery and greeting visitors. He’s still going strong at over 90 years old. We thoroughly enjoyed our tasting experience, not only because we met a celebrity winemaker, but because the tasting room staff was very friendly and willing to take the time to educate us about the winery and their wines.

Grape stomping at Grgich

The Napa Valley wine train offers a package with a stop at Grgich Hills.  The winery is open to the public daily and tasting hours start earlier than many of the other wineries on highway 29.  If you want something more than the typical wine tasting, they offer a variety of tours and tastings on their website.  If you visit in the fall, you can pay $10 more than the usual tasting fee to sample a few wines, stomp grapes like they did in the TV show I Love Lucy, and get a t-shirt with your grape-stained footprints.

*Reference from Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.

Meeting Mike Grgich