Mike Grgich turns 90. Again!

I posted on Mike Grgich some five years ago for the first time, but the founding father of the US wine industry really deserves more.

Mike's Chardonnay made for Chateau Montelena outscored France’s best white Burgundies at the now famous “Judgment of Paris” tasting and this victory transformed the status of Napa Valley wines forever. America knocked the French off their fancy schmancy wine pedestal - on their home turf! And Mike had made the killer Chardonnay that changed history.

So important was Mike Grgich’s contribution to American culture, in fact, that the winning bottle of Chardonnay is now displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History along with one of Mike’s famous berets. 

In 1958, Mike landed in Napa Valley, with one suitcase (now at the Smithsonian too), some wine textbooks, and $32 hidden in his shoes. The rest is pretty much the story of which dreams – and Hollywood movies – are made.

Last year Mike Grgich turned 90 years old, and did so some 200 times! turned 90 years old yesterday. For the 167nd time.Napa Valley celebrated the winemaker’s birthday as many times as possible throughout the course of the year.