Warren Winiarski

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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 the University of Chicago, then left for a school of agriculture and mining in Colorado, and finally graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, 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 in Naples. 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 planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot along with the existing Petite Sirah vines and began making wine as Stag's Leap Wine Cellars .

Six years later, a bottle of Winiarski's very first vintage was selected for competition in the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, where it won first place among the 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."

"It is remarkable that Winiarski's first vintage was 1973 and that such a young vineyard produced a wine that was impressive on release and after 30 years.

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[edit] Sources

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.