About this article
This article presents the introduction to The Judgement of Paris, compiled and edited by Susan Keevil and published by Académie du Vin Library to mark the tasting’s 50th anniversary. It sets the scene for the event organised by Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher on 24 May 1976, when California wines triumphed over some of France’s most celebrated names.
Tracing its influence from Napa Valley to the wider wine world, the introduction considers how one blind tasting challenged established hierarchies, gave confidence to a generation of winemakers and encouraged a more open-minded appreciation of fine wine.
Introduction
What started as a simple wine tasting in Paris to celebrate 200 years of American independence now has a legacy that is truly astounding. The shock waves sent out by its results began as ripples, disturbing only a cluster of wine tasters in the city’s 9th arrondissement. They then irritated their way to the smarter domaines of Burgundy and Bordeaux, and transferred as a kind of happy tension across the Atlantic. There, gathering enough momentum to reach California, the ripples became waves of astonishment and joy – increasing in size to become a tsunami of confidence and hope among its growers and winemakers.
This book is a celebration to mark 50 years since that famous day – May 24th 1976 – when California wines challenged the French classics in what came to be known as the Judgement of Paris. It tells its story in words and images, setting the scene in Paris, and introducing the protagonists, the winners and the losers. It explains what the results of this tasting mean to wine people around the world.
Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher began it all. Their idea to show California wines at their best, to arouse interest among their French clients and neighbours, was a timely one. While Steven was always a devotee of classic wines, he had a passion for spreading the word about newer names, especially where he felt they were worthy of greater attention. And just as he gathered good wines, he gathered great people. Joanne Dickenson was the Californian wine tour host who made it possible for the American wines to fly to Paris (any slower and they wouldn’t have made the tasting in time). Bella Spurrier took the photographs that showed the consternation on the faces of the judging panel as they began to understand what was going on. George Taber was the journalist for Time magazine (and also a student at Steven and Patricia’s Académie du Vin wine school) who, following the tasting, reported that ‘the unthinkable had happened, California had defeated all Gall’. Brian St Pierre was the wine publicist who called Steven to find out what was going on, then alerted Frank Prial of the New York Times who spread the story further. Sarah Kemp, Jasper Morris MW and Ben Howkins each had a hand in arranging the anniversary tastings that embedded the Judgement of Paris and its result in people’s minds. Many of these friends have added their tributes to Steven and Patricia on these pages.
Had the California wines not been at the top of their game, it couldn’t have happened. Looking back, it was almost certainly the wine scientist André Tchelistcheff, mentor and advisor to Napa’s top winemakers through the 1970s, who got the ball rolling. He introduced state-of-the-art techniques and procedures that defined a new style for Cabernet Sauvignon in the valley. Warren Winiarski was one of his best students and went on to make the Judgement’s top-scoring red. Mike Grgich, who made the highest-ranking Chardonnay, also picked up the baton from Tchelistcheff – they shared their wine discussions in Croatian. Paul Draper, less a disciple than a friend, carved a different path down in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but he, too, made a top-five wine (Ridge Monte Bello) and went on to become another leading light in California winemaking.
The pages that follow describe the 20 wines chosen by Steven and Patricia to rise to the challenge – most of which are still major players 50 years later. We gather notes and opinions from the wine world’s most trusted palates to bring these wines to life on the page, revealing them both as they were in the 1970s and showing what you can expect from their finest vintages in your glass today. They are, after all, wines that have changed the world...
Looking back 50 years, it is clear that the Judgement of Paris most certainly has changed wine on a global scale. To explain how and why this has happened, we have asked commentators, wine friends and experts to relive the tale from their own perspective, describing the reverberations for wine in their own field of endeavour. As they explain what the tasting has meant to them, each voice deepens the resonance of the event over and again. From France, we hear from Aubert de Villaine in Burgundy, who was shocked by the result at first, but eventually admitted he was grateful for the wake-up call. After the initial shrugs of indifference, the same came to be true for growers in Bordeaux, find Jane Anson and Marc Bouffard. From the United Kingdom, Jancis Robinson MW explains how the Judgement opened up the world of commentary: now any wine can be worthy of praise.
While Steven was always a devotee of classic wines, he had a passion for spreading the word about newernames, especially where he felt they were worthy of greater attention. And just as he gathered good wines,he gathered great people
Gabriele Gorelli MW and Federico Moccia, our commentators from Italy, celebrate the eradication of long-held assumptions: French wines are not always best. In South America, Amanda Barnes MW salutes blind tasting for being the forum that allows ‘also-rans’ to shine. And, from China, Ch’ng Poh Tiong praises its legacy of curiosity – the continuation of Steven Spurrier’s determination to champion the underdog.
At the very heart of the book, the message from California is strongest of all. Here, where the effects were the kind of seismic they weren’t expecting, Karen MacNeil sums up, explaining that the Judgement of Paris fundamentally changed the way the region felt about itself. Randall Grahm, Cathy Corison, Kelli White, Dorothy Gaiter, Violet Grgich, Ric Forman and their colleagues ring out the good news for wine in the Golden State.
Context is important. We compare images of Bordeaux and California wine-making as it was in the 1970s, to show the different cellar conditions from which the winning wines emerged. We ask about the ‘Judgements’ that followed: did there runs have the same shocking results? And seasoned wine judges Raymond Blake and Stephen Brook explain the hazards of blind tasting the world’s icon wines against unknown newcomers. It’s not always possible to emerge unscarred. We also hear from those who challenged the Judgement: would the new-look wines from California have achieved the same result without the Paris tasting? Were there other factors at work...?
We couldn’t have created this celebratory book without Marc Nadeau, Steven’s partner at the Canadian Académie du Vin and colleague of the Académie du Vin Library, who generously agreed to be our sponsor. Nor could we have compiled it without the writers, journalists and wine commentators who have willingly and enthusiastically shared their thoughts: we’d like to thank each and every one of them. We’d also like to thank Steven Spurrier’s good friend Sarah Kemp, who very kindly agreed to write the concluding chapter. (Who better? Through her time as publisher of Decanter magazine, Sarah observed the long-term consequences of the Judgement of Paris more closely than almost any other.) We’d also like to thank Martin Preston, our designer and main man, who has sourced the beautiful, atmospheric photographs that bring the days of the Judgement of Paris back to life on these pages.
Depending on who you talk to, the 1976 Judgement of Paris was either an event that sent immediate shock waves, or caused ripples that increased in size until they became unignorable. Either way, the confidence it has engendered among winemakers and professionals has meant that there’s barely a bottle on the planet it doesn’t affect.
The Judgement of Paris, compiled and edited by Susan Keevil and published by Académie du Vin Library and is available now.
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