Overview

Please join the Wisconsin Chapter for a virtual wine tasting with Grgich Hills Estate Winery of Napa Valley, CA. Grgich Hills founder, Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, rose to fame for being the winemaker at Chateau Montelena in the 1970’s who made the bottle of Chardonnay that attained the highest score at the noted “1976 Tasting of Paris” (you may recognize this from the movie Bottleshock). His Chardonnay brought world-wide attention to the great quality wines being made in Napa, California, at a time when French wines were still king. Mike Grgich is still alive and well, and his children and nephew now make the wines at Grgich Hills Estate. Grgich Hills is 100% Certified and 100% Estate Grown, meaning all of their grapes are grown on their own estate of course, and not purchased from other farmers. This winery is an important part of the American winemaking story and their wines are highly acclaimed year over year.  If you are ever in Napa, this is a must do winery visit!

The wine tasting will be led by Sean Barrett, one of the most engaging wine tasting speakers you will find, and he will share tasting and pairing notes the day before the event with registrants. The wines being tasted are full size 750ml bottles of wine and are the Napa Valley Chardonnay and the Napa Valley Zinfandel. The Chardonnay is significant not only because it is delightful but also because of the link to the 1976 Paris Tasting mentioned above. The Zinfandel is one of the BEST of California and also has an incredible story as well. Mike Grgich is originally from Croatia, and while working in California wineries as a young man, thought that the Zinfandel reminded him of a wine from back home. Through his efforts, researchers were able to trace the DNA path of American Zinfandel back to an ancient grape called Plavac Mali in Croatia. This is a very finely crafted and food-friendly Zinfandel that is always the run-away hit at my wine dinners!  

Thank you to our Virtual Event Sponsor!

Thank you to our National and Gold Chapter Sponsors!