Miljenko 'Mike' Grgich, a prominent Croatian American winemaker in California, died at the age of 100, local media reported on Wednesday.

Grgic was notable for being the winemaker behind the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that bested several white Burgundy wines in the wine tasting event that became known as the Judgement of Paris of 1976. The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the Judgment of Paris was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California). Grgich’s California wine rated best, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world’s best wines.

In recognition of his contributions to the wine industry, Grgich was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Vintner’s Hall of Fame on March 7, 2008.

Grgich was born in 1923 in Desne in Kula Norinska, in Dubrovnik-Neretva County, of Croatia’s Dalmatian coast.

Grgich grew up one of 11 children in a family of winemakers and his family in Croatia had a small winery.

He studied oenology and viticulture at Croatia’s University of Zagreb In 1954. He fled his home country, being dissatisfied with the Communist rule in the Socialist Yugoslavia, and made his way through Germany and Canada to California. “He arrived in 1958 with nothing but a small suitcase and $32 sewn into his shoe,” San Francisco Chronicle writes in the article headlined “Mike Grgich, Napa’s ‘King of Chardonnay,’ dies at 100”.

“An immigrant from the former Republic of Yugoslavia, Grgich escaped communist rule and co-founded one of Napa’s best known wineries, Grgich Hills, in 1977. His efforts played a significant role in Napa’s rise to global prominence as one of the top wine regions in the world.”