Celebrating the Founders – Origins of the Croatian Extravaganza THE DREAM The year was 1976, and Mike Grgich was awash in opportunity. The Chardonnay he crafted as winemaker of Chateau Montelena had just trounced the best French Burgundies in a...
Sheep and Owls and Bees, Oh My! Why animal life is crucial to maintaining a Certified Regenerative Organic vineyard. Nature isn’t broken. Evolution has created a delicate balance between the plants and animals that make a habitat thrive to its greatest caliber....
Back A Life Full of Miracles (pt 2) (Read Part 1 Here) Miljenko waited with bated breath as border security officers analyzed his paperwork, certain that he was only moments away from being discovered and sent back to Yugoslavia- or worse. It was a criminal offense to...
Back When Wine Giants Celebrate: Stories from Mike’s 100th Birthday Miljenko “Mike’ Grgich had been in the Napa Valley for less than a year when he first set foot in the Greystone building, at that time the headquarters for the Christian Brothers Cellars. In his...
Back Congratulations to Heidi Kühn of Roots of Peace, Winner of the 2023 World Food Prize After fleeing the restrictive regime controlling his country in 1954, Mike Grgich never expected to be afforded the opportunity to return to the land he’d called home in his...
Back A Life Full of Miracles (pt 1) From Farmer to King of Chardonnay It was an unassuming day in 1925 when, in the small village of Desne, Croatia, Ivka Grgić gave her youngest child Miljenko – who we now know as the famed Mike Grgich – his first taste of...
