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 (wine), Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French judges carried out two Blind wine tasting, blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines French wine, from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines California wine, from Napa, California). A Napa wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win. The event's informal name "Judgment of Paris" is an allusion to the Judgement of Paris, ancient Greek myth.

The wines

Vineyard on Monte Bello Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon

Red wines

1973 Judgement of Paris Chateau Montelena

White wines

The judges

The eleven judges were (in alphabetical order):

Method

Blind tasting was performed and the judges were asked to grade each wine out of 20 points. No specific grading framework was given, leaving the judges free to grade according to their own criteria. Rankings of the wines preferred by individual judges were based on the grades they individually attributed. An overall ranking of the wines preferred by the jury was also established in averaging the sum of each judge's individual grades (arithmetic mean). However, grades of Patricia Gallagher and Steven Spurrier (wine), Steven Spurrier were not taken into account, thus counting only grades of French judges.

The results

White wines

California Chardonnays vs. Burgundy Chardonnays Official jury results:

Red wines

California Cabernet Sauvignon vs. Bordeaux Official jury results： Average Original grades: out of 20 points.

Breakdown by judge

The original grades (out of 20 points) are shown, in alphabetical order by judge. Pessac Château Haut-Brion

Pierre Brejoux Original grades: out of 20 points. Montrose-1986

Claude Dubois-Millot Original grades: out of 20 points. Château Mouton Rothschild x

Michel Dovaz Original grades: out of 20 points. Patricia Gallagher Original grades: out of 20 points. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon CASK 23 1997

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon CASK 23 1997

Odette Kahn Original grades: out of 20 points. Raymond Oliver Original grades: out of 20 points. Steven Spurrier Original grades: out of 20 points. PaulDraper

Pierre Tari Original grades: out of 20 points. Rue Card-Lemoine-Rest Tour d'argent-1

Christian Vanneque Original grades: out of 20 points. Haut Brion exterior

Aubert de Villaine Original grades: out of 20 points. Jean-Claude Vrinat Original grades: out of 20 points.

Controversies

Statistical interpretation

Orley Ashenfelter and Richard E. Quandt analyzed the results of all 11 judges instead of only nine and proposed a slightly different ranking (see below). They also stated that only the scores of the first two wines in their ranking were statistically valid, and that the seven other wines could not be differentiated statistically. # Stag's Leap Wine Cellars '73 # Montrose '70 # Mouton '70 # Haut Brion '70 # Ridge Monte Bello '71 # Heitz Martha's '70 # Leoville-las-cases '71 # Freemark Abbey '69 # Mayacamas '71 # Clos du Val '72

Tasting replications

Some critics argued that French red wines would age better than the California reds, so this was tested.

San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978

The San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978 was conducted 20 months after the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. Steven Spurrier flew in from Paris to participate in the evaluations, which were held at the Vintners Club. On 11 January 1978, evaluators blind-tasted the same Chardonnays tasted earlier in Paris. # – 1974 Chalone Winery # – 1973 Chateau Montelena # – 1973 Spring Mountain Vineyard # – 1972 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles Domaine Leflaive. Ranking lower were Meursault Charmes Roulot 1973, Beaune Clos des Mouches Joseph Drouhin 1973, and Batard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon 1973. On 12 January 1978, evaluators blind-tasted the same Cabernet Sauvignons tasted earlier in Paris. # – 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars # – 1970 Heitz Wine Cellars Martha's vineyard # – 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello # – 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild. Ranking lower were Château Montrose 1970, Château Haut-Brion 1970, and Château Leoville Las Cases 1971.

French Culinary Institute Tasting of 1986

Two tastings were conducted by the French Culinary Institute (now called the International Culinary Center) on the tenth anniversary of the original Paris Wine Tasting. White wines were not evaluated in the belief that they were past their prime. Steven Spurrier (wine authority), Steven Spurrier, who organized the original 1976 wine competition, assisted in the anniversary tasting. Eight judges blind tasted nine of the ten wines evaluated. The evaluation resulted in the following ranking: ;Results Rank Wine # – Clos Du Val Winery 1972 # – Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello # – Château Montrose # – Château Leoville Las Cases 1971 # – Château Mouton Rothschild 1970 # – Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 # – Heitz Wine Cellars 1970 # – Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 # – Château Haut-Brion

Wine Spectator Tasting of 1986

Four of the judges were experts from ''Wine Spectator'' and two were outsiders. All tasted the wines blind. ;Results Rank Wine # – Heitz Wine Cellars 1970 # – Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 # – Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello # – Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 # – Clos Du Val Winery 1972 # – Château Montrose 1970 # – Château Mouton Rothschild 1970 # – Château Leoville Las Cases 1971 # – Freemark Abbey Winery 1969 # – Château Haut-Brion 1970

30th anniversary

A 30th anniversary re-tasting on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean was organized by Steven Spurrier in 2006. As ''The Times'' reported "Despite the French tasters, many of whom had taken part in the original tasting, 'expecting the downfall' of the American vineyards, they had to admit that the harmony of the Californian cabernets had beaten them again. Judges on both continents gave top honors to a 1971 Ridge Monte Bello cabernet. Four Californian reds occupied the next placings before the highest-ranked Bordeaux, a 1970 Château Mouton-Rothschild, came in at sixth." ''The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary'' was conducted on 24 May 2006. The Wedding anniversary#Traditional anniversary gifts, pearl anniversary was held simultaneously at the museum Copia (museum), Copia in Napa, California, and in London at Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine merchant. The panel of nine wine experts at Copia consisted of Dan Berger, Anthony Dias Blue, Stephen Brook, Wilfred Jaeger, Peter Marks Master of Wine, MW, Paul Roberts Master Sommelier, MS, Andrea Immer Robinson MS, Jean-Michel Valette MW and Christian Vanneque, one of the original judges from the 1976 tasting. The panel of nine experts at Berry Bros. & Rudd consisted of Michel Bettane, Michael Broadbent MW, Michel Dovaz, Hugh Johnson (wine), Hugh Johnson, Matthew Jukes, Jane MacQuitty, Jasper Morris MW, Jancis Robinson OBE MW and Brian St. Pierre. The results showed that additional panels of experts again preferred the California wines over their French competitors. ;Results # – Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971 # – Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 # – Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 (tie) # – Heitz Wine Cellars 'Martha's Vineyard' 1970 (tie) # – Clos Du Val Winery 1972 # – Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970 # – Château Montrose 1970 # – Château Haut-Brion 1970 # – Château Leoville Las Cases 1971 # – Freemark Abbey Winery 1969 Three of the Bordeaux wines in the competition were from the 1970 vintage, identified by the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux, Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) as among the four best vintages in the past 45 years or more. The fourth Bordeaux was a 1971, described by the Conseil as "very good". Another official French authority, the :fr:Office national interprofessionnel des vins , Office national interprofessionnel des vins (Onivins), rates the 1971 vintage as "excellent". The French wine producers had many years' experience making wine, whereas the California producers typically had only a few years' experience; the 1972 vintage was Clos Du Val's very first, yet it performed better than any of its French competitors.

Implications in the wine industry

Although Spurrier had invited many reporters to the original 1976 tasting, the only reporter to attend was George M. Taber from ''Time (magazine), Time'', who promptly revealed the results to the world. The horrified and enraged leaders of the French wine industry then banned Spurrier from the nation's prestigious wine-tasting tour for a year, apparently as punishment for the damage his tasting had done to its former image of superiority. The tasting was not covered by the French press, who almost ignored the story. After nearly three months, ''Le Figaro'' published an article titled "Did the war of the Cru (wine), 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 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."

In the media

* ''Bottle Shock'', a feature film starring Alan Rickman and Chris Pine, dramatized the 1976 wine tasting and debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. A second film (''Judgment of Paris'', based on George M. Taber, George Taber's book of the same name) was in production, and there has been controversy between the makers of the two films with allegations of defamation and misrepresentation. * ''Modern Marvels'' (S:13, E:54 – "How Wine is Made".) Discussion of the event is summarized in this History channel show. * Hollywood screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen is filming the movie ''Judgment of Paris (film), Judgment of Paris'' based on George Taber's book.

References

External links

TIME Magazine: Modern Living: Judgement of Paris, 7 June 1976
by George M. Taber * ;30th anniversary tasting
Paris tasting recreated for 30th anniversary

"The Judgment of Paris: What the French didn't learn from the legendary wine-tasting."
30th anniversary article from Slate.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Judgment Of Paris (Wine) 1976 in France California wine History of Napa County, California French wine History of the San Francisco Bay Area Wine tasting Wine-related events 1976 in California Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area May 1976 events in Europe

The wines

The judges

Method

The results

White wines

Red wines

Breakdown by judge

Controversies

Statistical interpretation

Tasting replications

San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978

French Culinary Institute Tasting of 1986

Wine Spectator Tasting of 1986

30th anniversary

Implications in the wine industry

In the media

See also

References

Further reading

External links