Norbert Mirassou; Led Family Winery

Norbert C. Mirassou, a fourth-generation descendant of the family that planted the first French Colombard, Grey Riesling and Pinot noir grapes in the Santa Clara Valley, is dead.

A Mirassou Winery spokeswoman said Sunday that Mr. Norb, as he was known to his family and employees, died at a San Jose Hospital last Tuesday. He was 77 and death was attributed to congestive heart failure.

Norbert had managed the technical aspects of the Mirassou (mira-sue) Winery in San Jose and his brother, Edmund, was the administrator. Both men had chosen semi-retirement recently and had turned the winery and the San Vicente, Mission Ranch and Mirassou vineyards over to Edmund’s three sons.

“He was very precious to me and my brothers,” said Dan Mirassou, one of his nephews.

Norbert and Edmund Mirassou were named Wine Men of the Year in 1981 by the Friends of the Junior Arts Center. Edmund Mirassou credited his brother with bringing sprinklers into the grape fields.

“Sprinklers systems had been used on alfalfa and in pastures, but Norbert adapted them” for their vineyards, he said, adding that wineries across California soon began using similar methods.

Norbert Mirassou also rigged a forklift that could run in the muddy fields to transport boxed grapes so the boxes did not have to be carried by hand.

The Mirassou family traces its winemaking tradition to 1854, when Pierre Pellier came to California looking for gold. Instead, he recognized the Santa Clara Valley as a perfect spot for varietal wines, and imported Colombard, Riesling and Pinot noir grapes from Europe.

The Mirassous came into the family in 1881, when Pellier’s daughter married Pierre Mirassou, a neighbor winemaker who joined the family business. One of their three sons, Peter, guided the vineyards through Prohibition (home winemaking was permitted) and, in 1937, his sons, Edmund and Norbert, took over.

In 1961, they expanded the family vineyards to Monterey County.

Today the family produces about 350,000 cases of Johannesberg Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Chenin Blanc and other wines each year.

Norbert Mirassou was active in the wine industry as a founding member and former chairman of the California Wine Advisory Board. He was a member of the Wine Institute and the Santa Clara County Winegrowers Assn., was an honorary member of the American Society of Enologists and Vinters and a former officer of the Monterey Peninsula Wine and Food Society.

Besides his brother, he is survived by his wife, Ruth, a sister, a son, a daughter, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.