Milton D. Eisele; Businessman, Vintner

Milton D. Eisele, 86, who helped develop Kaiser Industries and created a highly praised Cabernet Sauvignon wine. A native of New York and graduate of UC Berkeley, Eisele began his career with Wells Fargo Bank. But in 1940, he joined a management group who handled and developed the companies of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Shortly before his retirement in 1971 from Kaiser Aluminum, Eisele and his wife, Barbara, purchased a vineyard in Calistoga. The Eisele Vineyard flourished for two decades and produced wines that the International Wine Review called “absolutely astounding.” Eisele sold the vineyard in 1989, but wines continue to bear his name on the label, Eisele Vineyard-Araujo Estate. On Oct. 30 in Napa Valley, Calif., of Hodgkin’s disease.