Warren Winiarski was a winemaker whose Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars helped put California’s Napa Valley on the world stage of winemaking.
- Died: June 7, 2024 (Who else died on June 7?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 95.
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Warren Winiarski’s legacy
Though born in Chicago, Warren Winiarski would make his name in the Napa Valley of California, strengthening the region’s scene on the world winemaking map. While attending the University of Chicago, he spent a year studying in Italy. It was there that winemaking first drew Winiarski’s attention.
In 1964, he and his wife, Barbara, moved to California, where he took work as an apprentice winemaker. After serving several jobs in the industry, in 1970, Winiarski and a team of investors bought an old prune orchard in the Napa Valley. He converted it to grapes and created Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Just a few years later, in 1976, he shocked the wine world when his Cabernet Sauvignon won the Judgment of Paris blind tasting. The prestigious recognition was the first such win for the region, the first time a California wine bested a French wine, and all but established Napa Valley as a great wine area. A bottle of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ winning 1973 vintage is now in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Winiarski was also involved in philanthropy via the Winiarski Family Foundation, often focused on the environment and conservation. It donated $50 million to St. John’s College in Annapolis and Santa Fe, along with major donations to places including the University of California, Davis and Western Colorado Community College’s Viticulture and Enology Program. He also supported the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Land Trust of Napa County, and the Jack L. Davies Napa Valley Agricultural Preservation Fund.
Winiarski and his wife were also creators of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History’s American Food & Wine History Project, which looks at American history through the lens of food and drink. He was inducted into the Vintner Hall of Fame, Culinary Institute of America in 2009 and into the California Hall of Fame in 2017, among many other recognitions.
Tributes to Warren Winiarski
Full obituary: The Press Democrat
