Grgich Hills Estate’s Women In Wine
Violet Grgich – President and CEO
With a last name synonymous with iconic Napa Valley wine, one wonders if a career in the industry was always in the cards for Violet Grgich, now President and CEO of Grgich Hills Estate. Not at first, she says. “As a family business, my dad was always telling me I was going to be a winemaker and was going to be joining the business, and I was a little bit stubborn. But over the years of working in essentially all aspects of the business – the cellar, laboratory, tasting room, accounting – I found that I actually really enjoyed it.”
Her decades of experience in every facet of Grgich Hills, from production to administration to sales, has given her an incredible breadth of experience to draw upon as she leads Grgich Hills into the future. “Everyone is essential to the operation,” she states, and she strives to ensure everyone in her employ is empowered to know how their role, and the roles of others, are vital to the function of the whole.
Her favorite part of the job, she says, has been building relationships and making friends, and this passion is clear in the way she runs her business. “I look for people who are passionate, committed, and diverse – diverse meaning different skills, different talents, different backgrounds, that can work well together.”
Maryanne Wedner – California Salesperson, Export Manager, and so much more
Maryanne Wedner’s first Grgich Hills encounter came when she was working as a dental hygienist in Los Angeles in 1978. She and her husband, encouraged by stories from wine-loving clients, planned a tour of California wine regions, the last leg of which ended in the Napa Valley. While dining at a local restaurant, the couple happened to order a bottle of Grgich Hills 1977 Chardonnay – the very first vintage Grgich Hills produced. In her own words, “It was like nothing we’d ever tasted before.”
This of course led them to make an unplanned stop at the winery before returning home, where they ran into Mike Grgich, who, back in those days, was as much a salesperson as a winemaker. The pair became fast friends, and Mike, struck by her innate talents, requested she join his team as Grgich Hills’ first regional salesperson. Throughout her more than 40 years at Grgich Hills Estate, Maryanne has been a jack of all trades, progressing through roles depending on where the need was greatest, and excelling at all of them. This has made her into something of a wine industry scholar, whose knowledge continues to help guide our winery into the future.
Reminiscing on her long and illustrious career, Maryanne can’t help but reflect on how times have changed for women in the wine industry:
“I think it’s so different now, from when I started. I remember calling on accounts, and certain big distributors – I won’t name names – they were all men, all in suits and all very gruff, they would walk up to me and go ‘Hey little girl, we’re going to own you next week.’ It scared me the first time, so I called Mike [Grgich] and asked, ‘are we really selling to them?’ he goes, ‘No! Just tell them to go away.’ So, the next time somebody did that, I just said ‘Well, Mr. Grgich said to tell you to go away.’ Women are much more accepted in the wine industry now. I was just reading about all the wonderful female winemakers there are – we’re getting there. It’s going to take time, but we’re getting there with dignity and respect, because we deserve it.”
Leonor Rios – Star of the Cellar
Leonor Rios was not originally a full-time hire – she joined the Grgich Hills team during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 as a part-timer working for a contract company. “I worked at a lot of different wineries,” she says, reflecting on her journey to Grgich Hills, “and when I started here, I said, ‘I’m going to stay!’ I came in, I liked the work, so when they offered me the full-time position, I took it.”
Leonor is a master of the forklift, with over 14 years of experience as a licensed operator. On any given day, you’ll find her zooming around the cellar, hundreds of cases in her mechanical arms, controlling her steed with the poise of a dressage rider. Despite this obvious preference, her favorite part of the job is that each day brings a new challenge, and that no day of work is the same as the last.
When asked if she felt intimidated being the only woman on a cellar crew of eight, she responded, “Not really. When I started, it was a little bit difficult, because I didn’t know the people, but now it’s easy! I know the guys, the work, and what everyone is doing. And we all help each other.”
