Warren Winiarski

(1928 – 2024)

Photo by Bob McClenahan courtesy of the Winiarski family

Warren Winiarski, an academic who became one of Napa Valley’s most renowned winemakers, was one of the founding members of If Given A Chance. He, his wife Barbara, and their children, moved to Napa Valley from Chicago in 1964. After working as an apprentice  winemaker to Lee Stewart at Souverain, he became the first winemaker at the newly founded Robert Mondavi Winery in 1966. He and Barbara founded their own winery, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in 1970. When Warren’s first commercial release, the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, took first place over the highly-rated French wines entered in the now infamous 1976 Judgement of Paris, the win helped establish the Napa Valley as a world-class wine region. A bottle of the ’73 SLV Cabernet Sauvignon is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. 

Warren  went on to mentor many younger winemakers, and he was always a tireless advocate for the establishment and conservation of Napa Valley. His efforts helped establish the Valley as the first-ever agricultural preserve. Following the sale of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in 2007, the Winiarski Family Foundation supported many local and national philanthropies, including the new Barbara Winiarski Stroke Center at Queen of the Valley. The Foundation also provided the funds for the first Food and Wine Curator at the Smithsonian and sponsored important climate change research at UC Davis. 

In 1994, he was one of several prominent Napa Valley residents who saw the need to do more to help vulnerable Napa Valley high school students and formed If Given A Chance, which has helped over 400 disadvantaged students achieve their dreams.  He served on our Board of Directors for a decade. 

In recognition of the legacy Warren left in winemaking and education, his family established the Warren Winiarski Award in 2025 for IGAC students studying enology and viticulture.  

Of this award, his children Kasia, Stephen and Julia said:” Our father’s resolute belief in the individual and societal benefits provided through higher education, as well as his long tenure on the board of the IGAC, led him to establish the endowment, which funded this award. We are most pleased to witness the continuation of the work of IGAC in his name.”