Mulligan Stew With Terry David Mulligan

Mike Grgich – His 1976 Napa Chardonnay in USA/France blind tasting in Paris was The Shot Heard Round the World.   Winemaker Mike Grgich died Dec 13th 2023.  He was 100 years old. This is his story,  as told to yours truly into a nasty microphone in the lobby of the Hotel Vancouver 2016. He had just released his memoir A Glass Full of Miracles. (Note – on his way from Croatia to Napa he travelled across the Atlantic and by train across Canada to Vancouver for a lumberjack job he had applied for. The job was gone by the time he reached the west coast. So,  Mike washed dishes until he heard of a winemaking job in Napa and South he went)   Steven Spurrier, a wine expert from England who ran a fine wine shop in Paris, decided it would be fun to organize a blind tasting to coincide with America’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976. For the tasting, he gathered together the best French judges, and the finest French wines, and to salute America on its 200th anniversary he added in a few wines from some upstart winema