Winiarski became one of the world’s most famous winemakers when his Cabernet Sauvignon won the Judgement of Paris in 1976. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars finished ahead of Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Haut-Brion in the fabled blind tasting that year.
When his wife called to tell him they had won, Winiarski simply said: ‘That’s nice.’ Little did he know that the result would change his life. It also represented a seismic shift in the modern history of wine, demonstrating that New World wines could go toe-to-toe with their European counterparts.
Winiarski developed a fascination with wine at an early age. He was born to Stephen and Lottie Winiarski in 1928. His parents lived in a large Polish community within Chicago, and his father made honey wine, fruit wine and dandelion wine in his spare time.
He met his wife, Barbara, while studying western classics at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. Winiarski then returned to Chicago to begin graduate work in political theory with Leo Strauss, an esteemed philosopher, in 1952.
During his studies, he spent a year in Italy focusing on Machiavelli. He fell in love with Italian wine, and he resolved to eventually make wine in the United States.
He married Barbara in 1958, and the couple moved to Napa Valley in 1964. Winiarski served as a winemaking apprentice with Lee Stewart at Souverain Cellars, and he then became the first winemaker at Robert Mondavi Winery from 1966 to 1968.
After a two-year sojourn making wine with Californian grapes at Ivancie Cellars in Colorado, Winiarski returned to Napa Valley in 1970. With the backing of several investors, he purchased an 18ha prune orchard and converted it into a vineyard, planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
In 1973, Winiarski built an adjacent winery and named it Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Three years later, he secured a stunning upset victory over Bordeaux First Growths in the Judgement of Paris, which catapulted him to superstardom within the wine world.
Stag’s Leap cemented its status as one of Napa Valley’s leading producers over the ensuing decades. Winiarski continued to play a leading role in developing the region’s reputation as a producer of world-class wines. He chaired the Napa Valley Vintners trade body in 1989, and he spearheaded the campaign that led to the passage of the Conjunctive Labeling Law, which helped build brand recognition for individual AVAs within Napa Valley and other regions.
In 1996, Winiarski and Barbara initiated The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History’s American Food & Wine History Project. The project traces the long, diverse history of food and wine in the United States.
Winiarski’s career as a winemaker ended when he sold Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars to a partnership of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Marchese Piero Antinori for $185m in 2007. He was 78 years old at the time, but he continued to own Arcadia Vineyards in the Coombsville AVA of Napa Valley, while also helping to run the Winiarski Family Foundation.
In 2018, the foundation donated a $50m matching grant to St. John’s College to support students’ tuition fees. The donation allowed the college to reduce tuition costs by $17,000 per student. Winiarski also donated $3.3m to build the world’s largest collection of work by wine writers within the library at the University of California, Davis.
He was inducted into the California Hall of Fame alongside director Steven Spielberg and former Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett in 2017.
Winiarski died peacefully at home on June 7. He is survived by his three children, Kasia Winiarski-Amparano, Stephen Winiarski and Julia Winiarski, and six grandchildren: Gabriel and Noah Amparano, and Matin, Arren, Kiann and Maia Winiarski.
