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Judgment of Paris (wine)

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Until 1976, many people believed that the France produced many of the world's best wines. In that year a wine merchant in Paris, Steven Spurrier, organized a prestigious wine tasting in Paris, now known as the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. Spurrier sold only French wines and later said "I thought I had it rigged for the French wines to win."

The jury of nine tasters in the wine competition included several of France's top wine tasting experts. Blind tasting was performed so that none of the judges knew the identity of what was being tasted.

First to be tasted were white wines. The comparison was with Chardonnay - matching the very best French Chardonnays (Burgundy) against California Chardonnays. The winner was a California Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena, by winemaker Mike Grgich. Third and fourth place also went to California Chardonnays. All nine judges awarded their top scores to either Chalone Winery or Chateau Montelena, both of California.

The red wines were then tasted choosing a Cabernert Sauvignon from California's Stag's Leap Wine Cellars produced by winemaker Warren Winiarski for the top wine. "The wine that one judge said bespoke 'the magnificence of France' turned out to be a Napa Cabernet." The comments and results of the tasting indicated that the Judges could not distinguish California from French wines.

One of the judges, Odette Kahn, tried to get her ballot back at the close of the event. Spurrier declined to provide it after which she refused to speak to him, except to charge that he had falsified the results of the tasting. One of the winning winemakers, Warren Winiarski, received letters from people in the French wine business telling him that the results were a fluke. In essence, their letters argued that "'everyone knows' French wines are better than California wines 'in principle' and always will be.'" As recently as 2005, some of the judges refused to discuss the tasting, saying that to do so would be "too painful."

Although Spurrier had invited many reporters, the only reporter to attend was one from Time magazine, who promptly revealed the results to the world. Leaders of the French wine industry then banned Spurrier from the nation's prestige wine-tasting tour for a year, apparently as punishment for the damage his tasting had done to its former image of superiority.

The French press virtually ignored the story. After nearly three months, Le Figaro published an article titled "Did the war of the cru take place?", describing the results as "laughable," and said they "cannot be taken seriously." Six months after the tasting Le Monde wrote a similarly toned article.

The New York Times reported that several earlier tastings had occurred in the U.S., with American Chardonnays judged ahead of their French rivals. One such tasting occurred in New York just six months before the Paris Tasting, but "champions of the French wines argued that the tasters were Americans with possible bias toward American wines. What is more, they said, there was always the possibility that the Burgundies had been mistreated during the long trip from the (French) wineries.” The results of the Paris Wine Tasting in 1976 have subsequently been duplicated on several more occasions, although no such comparison has ever again been made in France.

Criticisims

Some critics argued that French red wines would age better than the California reds. However, in blind competitions of the same wines ten years later (French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986 and Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986), California reds again placed ahead of their French coutnerparts.

Impact on Wine

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 had a revolutionary impact on expanding the production and prestige of wine in the New World. It also "gave the French a valuable incentive to review traditions that were sometimes more accumulations of habit and expediency, and to reexamine convictions that were little more than myths taken on trust." The result has been the improvement of wine around the world to the benefit of consumers.

The Results

White wines

Red wines

See also

Other wine competitions

In all of these wine competitions, as in the Paris event, (1) all tasting was done blind and (2) the results were listed in rank order from highest to lowest. There were no multiple winners except in the case of multiple categories (for example one red wine winner and one white wine winner).

Other

Sources

  • Taber, George M Judgement of Paris: California vs France and the Historic Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Simon & Schuster, 2005.
  • Asher, P. The Judgment of Paris. In Reichl, Ruth (Ed.) History in a Bottle. NY: Modern Library, 2006.
  • Hinkle, Richard Paul. The Paris tasting revisited. Wines & Vines, August 1996, 77(8), 32-34.
  • Peterson, Thane. The Day California Wines Came of Age: Much to France's Chagrin: a Blind Taste Test 25 Years Ago in Paris inadvertently launched California's fine wine industry. Business Week, May 8,2001.
  • Prial, Frank J. Wine talk: California labels outdo French in blind test. New York Times, June 9,1976.
  • Prial, Frank J. The day California shook the world: May 4, 1976, blind tasting in Paris with U.S. winning highest scores. New York Times, May 9, 2001.
  • Rice, William. Those winning American wines. Washington Post, June 13,1976.
  • Winiarski, Warren. Zut alors! The French like California wine. Wines & Vines, April 1991. 72(4), 28.
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