Grgich Hills Estate
The man who made the Chardonnay that beat Burgundy in 1976 opened this place the next year. Walk-ins welcome, $60 for Miljenko's Tasting, grape stomps on Saturdays through harvest.
Why go
Miljenko Grgich was born in Desne, Croatia, in 1923, the youngest of eleven, and left communist Yugoslavia through Germany and British Columbia to reach Napa in 1958.1 He worked at Chateau Souverain, then alongside André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu, then made Robert Mondavi's 1969 Cabernet, then went to Chateau Montelena.1 In his second vintage there he made the 1973 Chardonnay that won the white flight at the 1976 Judgment of Paris; the suitcase he fled Yugoslavia with is in the Smithsonian, in an exhibit called 101 Objects that Made America.1 He founded this estate with Austin Hills in 1977, which is why the label carries a Croatian checkered shield beside a rearing horse from the Hills family crest.3 The Paris wine was Chateau Montelena's; what Rutherford pours is everything he did afterward.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Miljenko's Tasting, $60, charged at the winery.2
- Order: the Private Library Tasting at $250 if you want older vintages, or a glass on the garden patio if you want the Vaca Mountains and an hour.2
- Avoid: driving past because you have no booking. Walk-ins are always welcome, and guided experiences run on availability.2
What locals & experts say
- Decanter, on the wine that made his name:
The 1976 Judgement of Paris winning white wine, Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay, was made by Grgich in just his second vintage at Montelena.
That is the scope: his hand, Montelena's label, a year before this winery existed.1
I found no critic writing about the current Grgich Hills wines, so I have no outside call to give you.
Good to know
- Booking: walk-ins always welcome, guided experiences by availability on Tock. Dogs and children are welcome; only over-21s taste.2
- Harvest 2026: grape stomps on 29 August, 12 September and 10 October, and a members' Croatian Harvest Extravaganza on 3 October.2
- The Croatian side: Grgich went back after 1989 and founded Grgić Vina on the Dalmatian coast, which the Rutherford estate treats as its sister winery.1
- Hygiene: not established. No inspection instrument for this county is on file here.
Verdict
should-visit — Miljenko Grgich made the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the white flight in Paris in 1976, then built this estate the next year with Austin Hills, so what you are drinking in Rutherford is the sequel and not the trophy. Decanter follows him from a village in Croatia to Beaulieu, where he worked under Andre Tchelistcheff, and on to Robert Mondavi's first vintage in 1969. One career carries most of the history of modern Napa. The practical reason to stop is rarer than the history: walk-ins are always welcome on a stretch of Highway 29 where almost nothing takes them, $60 for Miljenko's Tasting, $250 for the library flight, and a grape stomp on Saturdays through harvest. Nobody has judged a current bottle in anything cited here, and that is what keeps it off the top rung.