- Warren Winiarski
Warren Winiarski (born 1928) is California winemaker.
Winarski was born in a large Polish section of
Chicago, Illinois . After graduating from high school, he entered theUniversity of Chicago , then left for a school of agriculture and mining in Colorado, and finally graduated from St. John's College inAnnapolis, Maryland , in 1952. Winiarski then returned to the University of Chicago to begin graduate work in political theory, as well as spending a year of study inNaples . He taught at Chicago for six years while working on a Ph.D.However, Winiarski's experience in Italy convinced him that he should be a winemaker. After working for, and learning from, various wineries, including that of
Robert Mondavi , he bought a carefully selected 50-acre ranch in 1970, which he turned into a vineyard. He plantedCabernet Sauvignon andMerlot along with the existingPetite Sirah vines and began making wine asStag's Leap Wine Cellars .Six years later, a bottle of Winiarski's very first vintage was selected for competition in the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, where it won first place among the ten French and California red wines.
Winiarski discovered that the
wine competition results provoked anger, animosity and bitterness among some in France. "Afterwards I received several letters from members of the French wine industry saying that the queer results of the 1976 tasting were a fluke. In essence, their letters argued that 'everyone knows' French wines are better than California wines 'in principle' and always will be."On Aug. 1, 2007, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars reached an agreement to be acquired for $185 million by
UST Inc. and Marchese Piero Antinori.ee also
*
List of wine personalities ources
* Taber, George M. "Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine". NY: Scribner, 2005.
*Winiarski, Warren. Zut alors! The French like California wine. "Wines & Vines", April 1991, "72(4)", 28.
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