Milestones
1964
Moving to California
In 1964, Warren Winiarski left his position as a lecturer in the liberal arts at the University of Chicago and moved his family to California where he would fulfill the destiny of his family name. In Polish, “Winiarski” means “vintner’s son.”
The move coincided with a Renaissance in the Napa Valley that followed Prohibition and the devastating economic aftermath of the depression. Although there had once been some 140 wineries in the valley, by the time the Winiarskis arrived, there were fewer than 20. By the mid-1960s, a new spirit of excitement had returned to the Napa Valley. Upon arriving, Warren apprenticed with Lee Stewart, of the original Souverain Winery, and André Tchelistcheff of Beaulieu Vineyards, spending his days working over wine vats and nights reading books about winemaking, looking forward to the day he would start his own winery.