50 Viticulturists

John Adlum was a pioneering American viticulturalist who was the first to cultivate the Catawba grape. He is known as "the father of American viticulture" (grape-growing). He also served in the American Revolutionary War; was a well-known surveyor; was one of the first associate judges in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania; and served in the United States Army in the War of 1812.

Marcelin Albert was a French cafe owner and winegrower considered the leader of the 1907 revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers.

Count Alexandre de Lur Saluces, born 20 May 1934 in Vendenesse-lès-Charolles, is a french viticulturist who for 36 years acted as manager of Château d’Yquem, and still acts in this capacity for Château de Fargues, both Sauternais châteaux held by the Lur Saluces family for generations.

Mary Elizabeth Anderson was an American real estate developer, rancher, viticulturist and inventor of the windshield wiper blade. On November 10, 1903 Anderson was granted her first patent for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled from inside the car, called the windshield wiper.

Helmut Becker, German viticulturist, was chief of the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute. As a successor of Heinrich Birk, he viewed viticulture from a global perspective and promoted the globalization of a quality wine industry. Dr. Becker collaborated with numerous scientists around the world and encouraged the importation of important clones and varieties in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries. He did early important work in Neustadt/Weinstrasse during the 1950s and 1960s in the European phylloxera eradication program.

Heinrich Birk was a German viticulturist. He was head of the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute. Heinrich Birk studied philosophy at the University of Giessen after his initial graduation 1920–1923 in agronomy at the university of Bonn and after 1924 in addition to an initial position on the domain Steinberg, Kloster Eberbach. He received his doctorate in this subject in 1929. At this time he was already two years as clerk at the Geisenheim Research Center at the Institute of vines finishing as an assistant to Professor F. Muth. 1939 he became head of the Reichs-Rebenzuchtstation. He had to quit a year later because of his compulsory military service. 1945 Birk returned and devoted himself in postwar reconstruction.

Jean-Charles Boisset is a French vintner and the proprietor of the Boisset Collection, which operates 28 wineries in California, France, and Canada.

Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He was a central figure in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His accolades include five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a British Academy Film Award.

Cyryl Czarkowski-Golejewski was an aristocratic Polish landowner and wine producer. Following the German and Soviet invasions of Poland in September 1939 the Czarkowski-Golejewskis were thrown out of their home at Wysuczka. In April 1940 Cyryl Czarkowski-Golejewski became a victim of the Katyn massacre.

Ernest Joseph Antoine Ferroul was a French physician and politician. He held extreme left political views. He was twice a deputy for the southern department of Aude between 1888 and 1902, was first elected mayor of Narbonne in 1891 and held that office from 1903 until his death. He is known as one of the leaders of the successful 1907 revolt of the Languedoc winegrowers, in which up to 800,000 vineyard smallholders and workers demonstrated to demand government action to end unfair competition.

Dr. Konstantin Frank (1899–1985) was a viticulturist and winemaker in the Finger Lakes region of New York. He was born in Odessa, Ukraine and received his PhD in viticulture from the Odessa Polytechnic Institute, his thesis being on techniques for growing Vitis vinifera in a cold climate. After working for a time in what was then Soviet Georgia managing a large state-owned vineyard, he came to the United States in 1951. Speaking nine languages, English not being one of them, Frank was forced to take a job as a dishwasher in New York City. When he could save up enough, Frank moved with his family to the Cornell University Geneva Experiment Station in 1953. During the 1950s, he was a consultant to the Gold Seal Winery and established a Vitis vinifera grape nursery. He urged New York State winemakers to move away from native North American grapes, including Vitis labrusca and other species, and instead plant Vitis vinifera, the traditional grapes of European winemakers. For 300 years, failed attempts to plant "Vitis vinifera" varieties were blamed on the cold weather. With extensive experience growing the European grapes in below freezing temperatures back in Ukraine, Frank knew it would be possible with the techniques that he developed.

Sir David de Villiers Graaff, 3rd Baronet, was a South African businessman and owner of De Grendel Wine Estate.

Wharton Jackson Green was a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina and an officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Mike Grgich is a Croatian American winemaker in California. He was born into a winemaking family in the town of Desne on Croatia's coastal region of Dalmatia. He is 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. 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. The tribute came at the same time that Grgich was celebrating his 50th vintage of winemaking in the Napa Valley.

Victor Davis Hanson is an American conservative commentator, classicist, and military historian. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for National Review, The Washington Times and other media outlets.

Agoston Haraszthy was a Hungarian-American nobleman, adventurer, traveler, writer, town-builder, and pioneer winemaker in Wisconsin and California, often referred to as the "Father of California Wine", alongside Junípero Serra, as well as the "Father of California Viticulture," or the "Father of Modern Winemaking in California". One of the first men to plant vineyards in Wisconsin, he was the founder of the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, California, and an early writer on California wine and viticulture.

August Karl Herold was a German grape breeder.

Edward Solomon Hyams was a British gardener and horticulturalist, historian, novelist and writer, and anarchist. He is known for his writings as a French scholar and socialist historian, and as a gardener.

Mathieson Harry Jacoby was an Australian politician who twice represented the seat of Swan in the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, from 1901 to 1905 and then again from 1908 to 1911. He was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1904 to 1905. Outside politics Jacoby was a noted viticulturist, one of the pioneers of the West Australian wine industry.

Hermann Jaeger was a Swiss-American viticulturist, honored as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his part in saving the French wine industry from the phylloxera root louse pest.

Géza Krepuska was an ear specialist, a university professor and the founder of Hungarian ear surgery. His father, János Krepuska, worked as a farmer at the farm-stead of Szent Lőrinc, later in Pestszentlőrinc. He lived in the 'red house', situated close to the Weather Station.

Leo Laliman was a winegrower and viticulturist from Bordeaux, France. He, along with fellow winegrower Gaston Bazille, is largely accredited for the discovery that when European vines are grafted with suitable American rootstock, they become resistant to grape phylloxera. This discovery was very relevant at the time, when France was suffering from a severe wine blight induced by the same phylloxera.

Anna Larroucau Laborde de Lucero was a French philanthropist and educator. Pioneer of the Argentine grape and wine industry. She was born in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France, more precisely in the district of Sainte-Croix, Oloron, rue Mercière Nº13,. She died in San Martín, Mendoza, Argentina.

Nicholas Longworth was an American banker and winemaker as well as the founder of the Longworth family in Ohio. Longworth was an influential figure in the early history of American wine, producing sparkling Catawba wine from grapes grown in his Ohio River Valley vineyard.

The Honourable Sir William Macarthur was an Australian botanist and vigneron. He was one of the most active and influential horticulturists in Australia in the mid-to-late 19th century. Among the first viticulturists in Australia, Macarthur was a medal-winning wine-maker, as well as a respected amateur botanist and noted plant breeder.

Paul Masson was an early pioneer of California viticulture and successful popularizer of Californian sparkling wine.

Constantin A. Mimi was a Bessarabian politician and winemaker, whose family was originally from Albania.

Robert Gerald Mondavi was an American winemaker. His technical and marketing strategies brought worldwide recognition for the wines of the Napa Valley in California. From an early period, Mondavi promoted labeling wines varietally rather than generically, which became the standard for New World wines. The Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) for Wine and Food Science at the University of California, Davis opened in October 2008 in his honor.

Hermann Müller, was a Swiss botanist, plant physiologist, oenologist and grape breeder. He called himself Müller-Thurgau, taking the name of his home canton.

Thomas Volney Munson, often referred to simply as T.V. Munson, was a horticulturist and breeder of grapes in Texas. In 1888, Munson was the second American, after Thomas Edison, to be named a Chevalier du Mérite Agricole by the French government.

Henry Morris Naglee was a civil engineer, banker, vintner, and a Union General in the American Civil War.

Bernardus Marinus "Ben" Pon was a Dutch vintner and Olympian and motor racing driver. He competed in one Formula One race, the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix, but had a far longer career in sports car racing, before turning his back on the track to concentrate on the wine trade. He also represented the Netherlands in clay pigeon shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics, finishing 31st in the skeet event.

Pierre Richard is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, best known for the roles of a clumsy daydreamer in comedy films. Richard is considered by many, such as Louis de Funès and Gérard Depardieu, to be one of the greatest and most talented French comedians in the last 50 years. He is also a film director and occasional singer.

Charles Rosen was a pioneer in artificial intelligence and founder of SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center. He led the project that led to the development of Shakey the Robot, "who" now resides in a glass case at the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California.

Mayer Alphonse James Rothschild, was a French financier, vineyard owner, art collector, philanthropist, racehorse owner/breeder and a member of the Rothschild banking family of France.

Baroness Ariane de Rothschild is a French banker, president of the board of the Edmond de Rothschild Group since April 2019. She is the first woman to run a Rothschild-branded financial institution.

Baron David René James de Rothschild is a French banker and a member of the French branch of the Rothschild family. He is Supervisory Board Chairman of Rothschild & Co and chairman of Rothschild Continuation Holdings, a Swiss holding company. He was formerly a chairman of De Beers. Since May 2013, de Rothschild is the chairman of the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress, the international Jewish organization representing Jewish communities in 100 countries.

Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild, also known as Baron Édouard de Rothschild was an aristocrat, French financier and a member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France.

James Mayer de Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, born Jakob Mayer Rothschild, was a German-French Jewish banker and the founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family.

Nathaniel de Rothschild (1812–1870), was a businessman, banker and winemaker. He established the Château Mouton Rothschild.

Philippe, Baron de Rothschild was a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty who became a Grand Prix race-car driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one of the most successful wine growers in the world.

Don Pedro Sainsevain was a French-born Californian vintner, ranchero, and a signer of the Californian Constitution in 1849. He is best known for his role in Californian winemaking, as one of the first producers of sparkling wine in California. He also was an early participant in the California Gold Rush.

John Bernard Philip Humbert de Salis, 9th Count de Salis-Soglio, TD, John da Buri, Graf v. Salis-Soglio, ; SRI Comes, Illustris et Magnificus, was a Count de Salis-Soglio. He was a ICRC delegate and envoy; Knight Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion (2000) of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Order of Malta with Swords, first ambassador of the Order to Thailand 1986-98, Cambodia 1993-98, president of its Swiss Association (1995-2000) and of CIOMAL, 2000–08; British soldier and lawyer; Valpolicella vigneron and hereditary Knight of the Golden Spur.

Albert Seibel (1844–1936) was a French physician and viticulturist who made hybrid crosses of European wine grapes with native North American grapes. His crosses are known as Seibel grapes.

William D. Steers was a Paul Mellon professor and chair of the Department of Urology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He was a president of the American Board of Urology (ABU) and editor of The Journal of Urology. In 2003, the University of Virginia awarded Steers the Hovey Dabney Professorship. In 2004, Dr. Steers initiated the Charlottesville Men's Four Miler road race to raise funds for men's health. Steers was a viticulturist, and co-owned Well Hung Vineyard in Charlottesville. He developed YOURometer, an iPhone app used to record urological related symptoms.

Pierre-Charles Taittinger was the founder of the Taittinger champagne house and chairman of the municipal council of Paris in 1943–1944 during the German occupation of France, in which position he played a role during the Liberation of Paris.

John Carl Warnecke was an architect based in San Francisco, California, who designed numerous notable monuments and structures in the Modernist, Bauhaus, and other similar styles. He was an early proponent of contextual architecture. Among his more notable buildings and projects are the Hawaii State Capitol building, the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame memorial gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery, and the master plan for Lafayette Square.

Martin Weinek is an Austrian actor, perhaps best known for his role in the television series Inspector Rex. He also produces wine in Austria.

John Reid Wolfskill was a California pioneer who helped establish development of California's agricultural industry in the Sacramento Valley in the 19th century. In 1842, Wolfskill was the first settler to plant vineyards and fruit trees there. Born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky and a pioneer of Solano County, "he was the first English speaking man to settle in the area around what is now Winters, California".

William Wolfskill (1798–1866) was a pioneer, cowboy, agronomist in Los Angeles, California beginning in the 1830s. He had earned money for land in a decade as a fur trapper near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he had become a Mexican citizen. This allowed him to own land in California.