Judgment of Paris: The tasting that changed wine forever

(CNN) — In a Parisian resort 45 years in the past, some of France’s greatest wine consultants got here collectively for a blind tasting.

The most interesting French wines have been up in opposition to upstarts from California. On the time, this did not even seem to be a good contest — France made the world’s finest wines and Napa Valley was not but on the map — so the outcome was believed to be apparent.

As an alternative, the best underdog story in wine historical past was about to unfold. Californian wines scored large with the judges and gained in each the purple and white classes, beating legendary chateaux and domaines from Bordeaux and Burgundy.

The solely journalist in attendance, George M. Taber of Time journal, later wrote in his article that “the unthinkable occurred,” and in an allusion to Greek mythology referred to as the occasion “The Judgment of Paris,” and thus it will forever be recognized.

“It was an entire recreation changer,” says Mark Andrew, a wine knowledgeable and co-founder of wine journal Noble Rot, “and it catapulted California wine to the highest of the high quality wine dialog.” Wine had gotten its watershed second.

A visit to California

UK wine knowledgeable Steven Spurrier, proper, got here up with concept for a blind tasting contest.

WATFORD/Mirrorpix/Getty Photographs

The tasting was the brainchild of British wine service provider Steven Spurrier, who handed away in March 2021 aged 79. “He was a legend,” says Andrew, who had recognized Spurrier for 15 years. “He was an open-minded man who actually knew wine, based mostly on its high quality and its intrinsic worth moderately than fame.”

Within the early Nineteen Seventies, Spurrier owned a wine store in Paris and a wine college proper subsequent to it, referred to as L’Academie du Vin. Each have been aimed primarily at non-French audio system and have been situated on the Proper Financial institution of the Seine river, the place most of the international banks and companies have been.

Spurrier appreciated to showcase wines from nations apart from France within the store and on the college — an act of true riot in Paris — and thought of a tasting as a method to promote his enterprise.

Patricia Gastaud-Gallagher, an American affiliate of Spurrier, visited California wineries in 1975 and was impressed with the rising high quality of their choices. She advised to look into such wines for the tasting and have it happen on the bicentennial of the 1776 American Battle of Independence. She additionally inspired Spurrier to go to California himself, to choose a number of worthy candidates.

And so, in early Might 1976, Spurrier and his spouse Bella took off for San Francisco for a wine tour. The tour was organized by Napa resident and connoisseur Joanne DePuy, who confirmed the Spurriers round. “Steven wished to go to the smaller, boutique wineries,” she tells CNN. “He had an excellent palate and he purchased the wines he appreciated, at full worth.”

Bottles on a airplane

The American wines have been introduced throughout with a gaggle of 30 Californian winemakers.

Harold Dorwin/Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian Establishment Archives

DePuy performed a vital position in organising the tasting, as a result of Spurrier realized that carrying two dozen bottles of wine with him on a airplane could be troublesome, and there was a a danger of having them held at customs. As an alternative, he requested DePuy to take the wine to Paris, since she had a tour of French vineyards lined up for mid-Might, with 30 Californian winemakers touring together with her. The bottles might be transported as private allowance.

“One bottle broke,” she remembers. “Steven arrived to satisfy me in his customary white go well with. We have been there ready for my baggage, and for the instances of wine. I smelled it earlier than I noticed it — one of the instances had purple on the skin and I stated, ‘Oh, my.’ However Steven was very sort. He stated, ‘That is all proper, not an issue.’ He had at the least two bottles of every wine.”

The tasting, now six months within the making, was scheduled for Might 24, 1976 on the Intercontinental Resort, not removed from Spurrier’s store and college. The 9 judges, all French, included Odette Khan, editor of a prestigious wine journal, and Aubert de Villaine, the director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, a Burgundy property that makes some of the world’s finest, and costliest, wines.

The fateful day

Bottles from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, then largely uknown in Europe, have been half of the tasting.

Jacqueline Romano/Getty Photographs for SOBEWFF®

Spurrier had no intention to trigger a stir or to humiliate his French judges. He wished little greater than to create recognition for Californian wines and generate publicity for his college. However he did give you a manner of making issues extra fascinating: he picked the 4 finest white wines from Burgundy and the 4 finest purple Bordeaux blends from his cellar to go in opposition to the American wines, and lined up all of the labels.

“It was solely just about on the final minute that Steven determined to vary the testing from an open one to a blind one. Blind tastings are widespread now, however on the time, it was a really revolutionary method to evaluate and distinction wines,” says Andrew.

Among the many French wines Spurrier picked have been Batard-Montrachet, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion — the elite of high quality wine. The Californian choices, 12 in complete, included Ridge Vineyards, Freemark Abbey, Spring Mountain, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Chateau Montelena — all of which have been largely unknown in Europe.

The journalist George M. Taber was given a card with the names of the wines that have been being served, so he knew precisely what the judges have been tasting. He quickly realized issues have been getting fascinating when one of the judges tasted a white wine and proclaimed, “That is undoubtedly California. It has no nostril,” when he was actually tasting the Batard-Montrachet, a Burgundy Chardonnay that is commonly categorized as one of the world’s finest white wines.

The unthinkable was certainly taking place.

When Spurrier tallied the scores, it turned out that California had dominated the white wine class, with a 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena because the winner, and three American wines within the prime 5. Within the purple class, a 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars got here out on prime, narrowly edging out a 1970 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from Bordeaux.

It was a David versus Goliath consequence, with wines that have been less expensive and youthful unexpectedly getting rated increased. The Chateau Montelena retailed on the time for about $6.50 per bottle, a small fraction of the fee of its French rivals; Stag’s Leap had been based simply six years earlier, in 1970, whereas winemaking at Chateau Mouton-Rothschild had been happening for 3 centuries. Each winners hailed from Napa Valley, which might go on to develop into one of the world’s premier wine areas.

The French judges have been removed from impressed with the outcomes. Odette Khan unsuccessfully demanded her scorecard again, based on Taber, so that the world would not know the way she scored the wines, whereas Aubert de Villaine later described the occasion as “a kick within the rear for French wine.”

Youngsters from the sticks

The outcome of the tasting was seen as a David versus Goliath consequence.

Courtesy Bella Spurrier

Joanne DePuy remembers the second she heard the information. She was additionally in France, tasting wine with Californian winemakers. In her group have been Jim and Laura Barrett, the homeowners of Chateau Montelena.

“We have been at a vineyard in Bordeaux, sitting down for lunch, when Jim Barrett was referred to as on the phone,” she recollects. “I assumed absolutely it will need to have been one of his kids, as a result of nobody knew the place we have been. However after he took the decision, Jim got here as much as me and whispered, ‘Our wine gained in Paris.'”

The caller was, in reality, George M. Taber, searching for a quote from Barrett for his report. That quote is now enshrined within the lore of the Judgment of Paris: “Not dangerous for youths from the sticks,” Barrett stated, utilizing an American colloquialism for a distant or rural space.

DePuy was determined to share the information with the others within the group, however as a result of they have been sitting with about 50 French wine retailers, she stated nothing as a substitute. “After lunch, we received on the bus and went down a protracted, treelined lane — which I can nonetheless see in my thoughts. We turned the nook and everyone began screaming and yelling and hugging. It was superb,” she says.

A seismic second

Winemaker Jim Barrett described the victory as: “Not dangerous for youths from the sticks.”

Nationwide Museum of American Historical past/Smithsonian Establishment Archives

The tasting changed historical past for wines of the New World, coming from exterior of conventional wine areas similar to France, Italy and Spain.

“In 1976, California wine was a child, in world phrases and positively in comparison with the good wines of Europe, and the wines of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Chile have been conceptually a really, very new factor for the European drinker,” says Andrew.

The tasting was a seismic second within the trendy historical past of wine, based on Andrew, as a result of it demonstrated that not solely have been New World wines value listening to, however that many of the best palates in France — in a blind tasting situation — really most popular them.

“We nonetheless see at this time that the cabinets of impartial wine retailers and the wine lists of nice eating places are full of Californian, Australian and South African wines, and we’re entitled to ask the query — would that have occurred as shortly and as considerably because it did, have been it not for Steven and the tasting that he placed on?”

The Judgment of Paris has been replicated many occasions after 1976, some of these by Spurrier himself, and with remarkably related outcomes.

In France, the tasting raised various eyebrows and a few questions concerning the course of and the wine choice, with most of the Bordeaux producers claiming that their wines have been too younger to be at their finest.

Its significance, nonetheless, stands unblemished.

Bottles of Chateau Montelena and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars like these that gained the competition are actually half of the gathering on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of American Historical past. And a 2008 movie, “Bottle Shock,” tells a closely fictionalized model of the story, with Alan Rickman as Steve Spurrier.

Spurrier’s spouse Bella, who took the one present images of the occasion, tells CNN that the tasting had a huge effect on the life of her late husband. “He was proud of it, however by no means imagined on the time the impact it will have. His intention was merely to introduce wines that he thought have been great and properly made to a wider viewers,” she says.

“Each wine had a narrative, based on him, and that is what he found in California. To the world’s nice shock on the time.”