On Monday, May 24th the American wine community will celebrate a momentous occasion in the history of American wine. On this day in 1976, a blind tasting took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris. It was a day that sticks with you if you love wine and know anything about this famous tasting. I’d say it was iconic!
Just in case you don’t know anything about this tasting, here’s the scoop.
I’ll start with the person who coordinated the whole event, Stephen Spurrier. Mr. Spurrier was a British ex-pat living in Paris. He owned a wine shop and a wine school called Academie du Vin. As a champion of French wine, he sold and promoted the excellence, structure and history of the wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux. But hearing about the up-and-coming wines of California and how they were rumored to be as excellent, he couldn’t resist the curiosity of trying them. He and his American associate, Patricia Gallagher, decided to put together a blind tasting of some of the highest quality California wines and stack them up against the world renown Grand Cru French wines.
This in and of itself was a significant event! Spurrier headed to California to taste and select the wines that will be put to the test alongside the top French reds and whites. He visited the vineyards and wineries of the new Napa Valley wine country and selected the following wines as a representation of their best:
Reds:
1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
1971 Ridge Vineyards-Monte Bello
1970 Heitz Wine Cellars-Martha’s Vineyard
1972 Clos Du Val Winery
1971 Mayacamas Vineyards
1969 Freemark Abbey Winery
Whites:
1973 Chateau Montelena
1974 Chalone Vineyard
1973 Spring Mountain Vineyard
1972 Freemark Abbey Winery
1972 Veedercrest Vineyards
1973 David Bruce Winery
Once the California wines were chosen, they were shipped to Paris (famously via several people’s individual luggage). The competition would be underway. The site of the tasting was selected and news of the tasting was beginning to spread.
The New York Times decided to send a reporter to cover the event. George Taber was the lucky reporter that was there that day. He thought this was going to be a small, insignificant event (the French always won), he would cover it and be done. Well, he was so wrong…he ended up being the sole reporter in the room where history was made.
Spurrier selected and invited nine well-known “celebrities” in the French wine world. Among them were sommeliers from some of the best French restaurants, a well-known vintner from a French vineyard, and the editor of Revue du vin de France (a French wine review). They all gathered at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris for the blind wine tasting. The French wines in competition were:
Reds:
1970 Château Mouton-Rothschild
1970 Château Montrose
1970 Château Haut-Brion
1971 Château Leoville Las Cases
Whites:
1973 Meursault Charmes Roulot
1973 Beaune Clos des Mouches Joseph Drouhin
1973 Batard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon
1972 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles Domaine Lefaive
The nine judges sat at the table to sniff, swirl, and sip the wines, rating each one on a score card. When the scores were tallied, the winners were announced, one top spot in each category: red & white.
Much to everyone’s surprise and much to the French judge’s shock and dismay, the top spots in both the red and the white categories went to Napa Valley California wines!
The winner for red wine was the 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and the winner for white wine was the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena. A bottle of each of these wines have been placed into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
This was the biggest story of the wine world and George Taber was there to witness the momentous results. It was the tasting heard round the world via the New York Times.
The Judgment of Paris (as its come to be known) changed the world of wine. It gave hope to all the New World wine makers in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, and others that they too could create beautiful, complex wines that could rival the Old World wines of Europe.
After receiving the news that his Chardonnay had won, the owner of Chateau Montelena, Jim Barrett famously said “Not bad for kids from the sticks!” I love this quote!
If you want to read more about this famous tasting, pick up George Taber’s book “The Judgment of Paris”. It’s a great read and you will come away with a respect for the “forefathers” of the California wine industry and their impact on the wine world as a whole.
If you’re more of a movie fan, 2008’s “Bottle Shock” is a movie loosely based on the 1976 tasting. Although it isn’t a strict depiction, it’s a fun movie.
Cheers!