Edmund Mirassou; Innovative California Winemaker

Edmund Mirassou, 78, patriarch of the Mirassou wine-making family. The Mirassou vineyards were started in the 1850s by his great-grandfather, Pierre Pellier, who brought wine cuttings to California from France. Mirassou and his brother Norbert took over the wine-making firm in the 1930s, shortly after Prohibition ended, and ran it for three decades. Edmund assumed administrative duties and Norbert handled the mechanical operations. Together, the brothers pioneered several innovations, including an overhead sprinkling system that made it possible to grow vines in arid Monterey County. They helped neighboring vintners establish the central coast’s reputation as an important wine-making region. Mirassou’s sons, Daniel, Peter and James, assumed control in 1966. On Wednesday in San Jose of leukemia.