Mike Grgich - a legend among winemakers

Wandering Vine is proud to offer several marvelous Grgich wines, from both Grgich Hills Estate in Napa Valley, and Grgić Vina in Croatia. There are many notable personalities in the wine world, but none moreso than Miljenko “Mike” Grgich.  He was the winemaker of the wine which made Napa Valley famous.  One of the most memorable events in US wine history was a wine tasting which came to be known as “The Judgment of Paris”.  In 1976, nine French wine experts did a blind tasting comparing four of the finest French white Burgundies against six Chardonnays from what was at the time, a little known wine region in the United States – Napa Valley.  And, the top rated wine was the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay made by Mike Grgich.  He later founded his own Napa Valley winery – Grgich Hills Cellar.  His wines continued to take top honors, earning him the enduring title of “King of Chardonnay”.  In his home country of Croatia he founded Grgić Vina, which also produces wonderful world class wines from the native grapes of the Dalmatian coast.

Mike Grgich family photo
images courtesy of Grgich Hills Estate

Kansas City also has a strong presence of Croatian immigrants who, like Mike Grgich, fled the country during communist rule.  Carla, our Queen of the Castle, had grandparents who were Croatian immigrants, and settled with many of their original countrymen on Strawberry Hill in Kansas City Kansas.  She grew up with her grandmother’s sarma and other Old World delicacies, as well as the plum wine that her grandfather made.