The Grand Jury Européen (GJE) is an ''Association sans but lucratif'' (
association without lucrative purpose
Laws regulating nonprofit organizations, nonprofit corporations, non-governmental organizations, and voluntary associations vary in different jurisdictions.
Australia
In Australia, nonprofit organizations include trade unions, charitable entities ...
under
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
law) with the aim of providing an alternative classification of
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
, founded in 1996 by François Mauss.
The Grand Jury Européen assembles a minimum of 12 permanent members, from at least 6 different countries of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
and
Switzerland, for
blind tasting
Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onward. Modern, professional w ...
a maximum of 68 wines in two daily 3-hour sessions. Such events have included the
Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997 In the Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997, the Grand Jury Européen, consisting entirely of European judges, conducted a blind tasting of 27 Chardonnay wines from seven countries. Held in Bordeaux, 70 percent of the entries in the wine com ...
and the "Judgment of Sauternes" of October, 2006.
The concept of GJE came to Mauss at "6 o'clock on the morning of 29 June 1996", as he sought to develop a method that in several ways was opposite to the approach of
Robert Parker, in order to provide an alternative to Parker's scores.
Initially Mauss wrote to some 200 Bordeaux châteaux, announcing plans of tasting the 1983, 1985 and 1990 vintages and requested purchase information, but received only three responses, from châteaux
Haut-Brion,
Pichon Lalande and
Sociando-Mallet.
[
In 2006 Mauss expressed criticism of ]the Judgment of Paris 30th Anniversary
The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French judges carried out t ...
, adding to his reputation as "a dissenting voice in the wine world",Beaujolais nouveau
Beaujolais nouveau ( , ) is a red wine made from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France. It is a '' vin de primeur'', fermented for just a few weeks before being released for sale on the third Thursday of November. Distributo ...
"''vin de merde'' case".
References
External links
Grand Jury Européen official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Jury Europeen
Non-profit organisations based in Luxembourg
Wine industry organizations
Organizations established in 1996