This just came across my news feed.
My dad was a huge Grgich fan. Will have to open a Grgich from dad’s cellar later this month.
One of my favorite Napa winery visit stories was when a friend, his girlfriend and I visited Grgich. This would’ve been in 1980 or 81. The three of us are chatting with Mike when in walks Christopher Reeves and Robin Williams. A couple of young kids are there, probably 6 and 8 years old. Robin starts to entertain them (and us!). Hilarious. Reeves was dressed in a tank top and shorts. Drop dead handsome. I thought my friend’s girlfriend was gonna pee in her pants. Robin and Christopher were totally down to earth.
RIP Mike
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Wow.
We were in Croatia in October.
He was the wine god there.
Judgement of Paris. Classic
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Oooof, a loss of a legend. Amazing that he lived to 100, aspire to the same goal.
Love what they have done for Calfornia wine. A long-time legend, pioneer for biodynamics, consistent quality, age-worthy wines, and still incredibly fairly priced. Such an amazing legacy.
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RIP Mike Grgich. I met him in 1991 and he was a true gentleman. After Robert Mondavi, one of my early heroes of the region.
Truly a legend. Good for him, making it to 100.
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wow. The word legend gets thrown around a lot but it clearly applies to him.
A life well lived! Legend.
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Aahh…the passing of an absolute legend and a lynchpin of history. I remember Mike as an absolute European gentleman, an unstoppable flirt, and an unquestioned champion of all thing vinous, all things Californian, and all things Croatian. Always with a smile, a glass in his hand, a mischievous sparkle in his eye, and a beret perfectly cocked to one side. RIP Mike!
Drank an '83 Cab earlier this year that was outstanding. Yes, a Legend. RIP
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So sorry to hear this. A wonderful man and not a bad winemaker 
I have a magnum of his 1981 Cabernet that I picked up at the winery decades ago that I guess I’ll have to break into this weekend
RIP. One of the most influential men in the wine business and a giant in the US wine industry.
And he also helped everyone figure out where Zinfandel was from. Best to his family.
@Carole_Meredith was there.
Zinfandel was long considered “America’s vine and wine,” [26] but when University of California, Davis (UCD) professor Austin Goheen visited Italy in 1967, he noticed how the wine made from Primitivo reminded him of Zinfandel.[27] Others also made the connection about that time.[28] Primitivo was brought to California in 1968, and ampelographers declared it identical to Zinfandel in 1972. The first wine made from these California vines in 1975 also seemed identical to Zinfandel.[29] In 1975, Ph.D. student Wade Wolfe showed that the two varieties had identical isozyme fingerprints.[30]
Dr. Lamberti of Bari had suggested to Goheen in 1976 that Primitivo might be the Croatian variety Plavac Mali.[27] By 1982, Goheen had confirmed that they were similar but not identical, probably by isozyme analysis.[27] Some Croatians, however, became convinced that Plavac Mali was the same as Zinfandel, among them Croatian-born winemaker Mike Grgich. In 1991 Grgich and other producers came together as the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) with the objectives of promoting the varietal and wine and supporting scientific research on Zinfandel.[14] With this support, UCD professor Carole Meredith went to Croatia and collected over 150 samples of Plavac Mali[31] throughout Dalmatia, in collaboration with the University of Zagreb.[27]
In 1993, Meredith used a DNA fingerprinting technique to confirm that Primitivo and Zinfandel were clones of the same variety.[32] Comparative field trials have found that “Primitivo selections were generally superior to those of Zinfandel, having earlier fruit maturity, similar or higher yield, and similar or lower bunch rot susceptibility.”[33][34] This is consistent with the theory that Primitivo was selected as an early-ripening clone of a Croatian grape.
By 1998, Meredith’s team realized that Plavac Mali was not Zinfandel, but that one was the parent of the other. In 2000 they discovered that Primitivo/Zinfandel was one parent of Plavac Mali.[31] The other parent of Plavac Mali was determined by Ivan Pejić and Edi Maletić (University of Zagreb) to be Dobričić, an ancient variety from the Adriatic island of Šolta.[31][14]
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Maybe 15 or 20 years ago, visited Grgich Hills. There was an elderly gentleman sitting on the porch. I started talking to him, then it dawned on me it was Mike Grgich. He was very friendly with me and I spent over an hour just chatting.
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Don’t forget that Black St.Peters grown in hothouses in Boston that came thru Vienna was most likely the source of Zin in Calif according to Charlie Sullivan.
Tom
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