On June 7 Warren Winiarski died at age 95. He was the owner of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars on the eastern slope of Napa Valley (not to be confused with Stag’s Leap Winery).
A Chicago native and at one time an instructor at the University of Chicago. He shopped at Irv Patnos’ wine store in Hyde Park and fell in love with wine (I worked there for a couple of weeks in the 1970s before I took over as “Madlyn Sherry” for Foremost Liquors’ 63 stores. I met him there in the late ‘70s when he came to Chicago on a sales trip). In 1966 he moved to Napa Valley and signed on as an assistant to a new winery opened by Robert Mondavi. In 1970 he opened Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. His wines, especially his Cabernet won praise.
In 1976 his Cabernet and the Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena in Northern Napa beat some of the best wines of France in France at a tasting conducted by an English wine merchant and judged by a panel including a number of French winemakers. Dubbed the “Judgement of Paris” the story went viral, and Time Magazine’s cover, as I recall, showed a cowboy pulling a bottle from his holster and shooting a French winemaker with the cork. There since has been a book and two movies commemorating this watershed event in the recognition of American wine.
I was one of only a handful of stores to carry both wines prior to the Paris tasting and I remember trying to convince my customers in my newsletter that at the then astronomical price of $6.30 a bottle the Montelena was comparable to French Meursault at the same price. Mike Grgich, who made the Montelena died in December. Grgich and I became friends and when he opened his own winery, Grgich Hills, and it won the Great Chardonnay Shootout, a tasting I did with 200+ chardonnays from around the world. He always credited me with putting it on the map and I was the guest of honor at an event celebrating the anniversary of the winery. Winiarski was on my tasting panel.
Here's his obituary from the Washington Post:
A Chicago native and at one time an instructor at the University of Chicago. He shopped at Irv Patnos’ wine store in Hyde Park and fell in love with wine (I worked there for a couple of weeks in the 1970s before I took over as “Madlyn Sherry” for Foremost Liquors’ 63 stores. I met him there in the late ‘70s when he came to Chicago on a sales trip). In 1966 he moved to Napa Valley and signed on as an assistant to a new winery opened by Robert Mondavi. In 1970 he opened Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. His wines, especially his Cabernet won praise.
In 1976 his Cabernet and the Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena in Northern Napa beat some of the best wines of France in France at a tasting conducted by an English wine merchant and judged by a panel including a number of French winemakers. Dubbed the “Judgement of Paris” the story went viral, and Time Magazine’s cover, as I recall, showed a cowboy pulling a bottle from his holster and shooting a French winemaker with the cork. There since has been a book and two movies commemorating this watershed event in the recognition of American wine.
I was one of only a handful of stores to carry both wines prior to the Paris tasting and I remember trying to convince my customers in my newsletter that at the then astronomical price of $6.30 a bottle the Montelena was comparable to French Meursault at the same price. Mike Grgich, who made the Montelena died in December. Grgich and I became friends and when he opened his own winery, Grgich Hills, and it won the Great Chardonnay Shootout, a tasting I did with 200+ chardonnays from around the world. He always credited me with putting it on the map and I was the guest of honor at an event celebrating the anniversary of the winery. Winiarski was on my tasting panel.
Here's his obituary from the Washington Post:
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