Judgment of Paris (wine)
Until 1976, France was generally regarded as having an unchallenged reputation as the foremost producer of the world's best wines. In that year a British wine merchant, Steven Spurrier, organized a prestigious wine competition in Paris, now known as the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the Judgment of Paris, which was a blind tasting of California and French Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignon. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win. [1]
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The judges
The 11 judges were Odette Kahn, editor of the Revue du Vin de France, Jean-Claude Vrinat of the Restaurant Taillevent, Raymond Oliver of the restaurant Le Grand Vefour, the sommelier Christian Vanneque of Tour D'Argent, Aubert de Villaine of the Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Pierre Tari of Chateau Giscours, Pierre Brejoux of the Institute of Appellations of Origin, Michel Dovaz of the Wine Institute of France, Claude Dubois-Millot, Steven Spurrier (British), and Patricia Gallagher (American) of l'Academie du Vin. Only the votes of the French judges were counted in the official tabulation. [2] Blind tasting was performed so that none of the judges knew the identity of what was being tasted.
The results
The white wines were tasted first. The comparison was of Chardonnay — matching French Chardonnays (Burgundy) against California Chardonnays.
White wines (Chardonnay)
- Template:USA - Chateau Montelena 1973 (winemaker Mike Grgich)
- Template:FRA - Meursault Charmes Roulot 1973
- Template:USA - Chalone Vineyard 1974
- Template:USA - Spring Mountain Vineyard 1973
- Template:FRA - Beaune Clos des Mouches Joseph Drouhin 1973
- Template:USA - Freemark Abbey Winery 1972
- Template:FRA - Batard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon 1973
- Template:FRA - Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles Domaine Leflaive 1972
- Template:USA - Veedercrest Vineyards 1972
- Template:USA - David Bruce Winery 1973
All 11 judges awarded their top scores to either Chalone Winery or Chateau Montelena, both of California.[3]
Red wines (Cabernet Sauvignon)
Rank – Country – Wine – Average grade (out of 20)
- Template:USA - Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 – 14.14 (winemaker Warren Winiarski)
- Template:FRA - Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970 – 14.09
- Template:FRA - Château Montrose 1970 – 13.64
- Template:FRA - Château Haut-Brion 1970 – 13.23
- Template:USA - Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971 – 12.14
- Template:FRA - Château Leoville Las Cases 1971 – 11.18
- Template:USA - Heitz Wine Cellars 'Martha's Vineyard' 1970 – 10.36
- Template:USA - Clos Du Val Winery 1972 – 10.14
- Template:USA - Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 – 9.77
- Template:USA - Freemark Abbey Winery 1967 – 9.64
"The wine that one judge said bespoke 'the magnificence of France' turned out to be a Napa Cabernet." Similarly, "'That is definitely a California. It has no nose,' said another judge — after downing a Batard-Montrachet '73." The comments and results of the tasting indicated that the judges could not distinguish California from French wines.
Three of the four Bordeaux wines in the competition were from the 1970 vintage, identified by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux 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".
The Bordeaux Wine Office rates the 1970 vintage for
- Pessac (Chateau Haut-Brion) as the best between 1966 and 1978 [1],
- Pauillac (Chateau Mouton Rothschild) as the best vintage between 1961 and 1982 (tie with 1975) [2],
- Saint Estephe (Chateau Montrose) as the best vintage between 1961 and 1982 [3], and the 1971 vintage for
- Saint-Julien (Chateau Leoville Las Cases) as good.
"When the results were tallied and announced, several judges behaved badly, refusing to give up their notes, and one even tried to change his numbers before Spurrier whipped away the scorecards." (McCoy)
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 George M. Taber 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.[4]
The French press almost 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." [5] Six months after the tasting Le Monde wrote a similarly toned article.[6]
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.”
Analysis of the 1976 results
Some critics have suggested that wine tastings lack scientific validity. For example, Steven Spurrier said, "The results of a blind tasting cannot be predicted and will not even be reproduced the next day by the same panel tasting the same wines" [7] and in one case it was reported that "A side-by-side chart of best-to-worst rankings of 18 wines by a roster of experienced tasters showed about as much consistency as a table of random numbers."[8][9]
The 1976 scoring was based on a simple averaging of the numerical grades. Steven Spurrier acknowledged in Decanter magazine in August 1996 that he tallied the winners by "adding the judges marks and dividing this by nine (which I was told later was statistically meaningless)."
Orley Ashenfelter and Richard E. Quandt have analyzed the results of all 11 judges' marks using a statistically sounder method.[7] They proposed the following rankings:
- Template:USA Stag's Leap Wine Cellars '73
- Template:FRA Montrose '70
- Template:FRA Mouton '70
- Template:FRA Haut Brion '70
- Template:USA Ridge Monte Bello '71
- Template:USA Heitz Martha's '70
- Template:FRA Leoville-las-cases '71
- Template:USA Freemark Abbey '69
- Template:USA Mayacamas '71
- Template:USA Clos du Val '72
Ashenfelter and Quandt discern three statistically significant categories. At the top are the 1973 Stag's Leap and the 1970 Montrose (#1 and #2). The second group contains most of the remaining wines (#3–9). Wines within a group are not statistically distiinct.
The original rankings appear to have been valid. The original and the Ashenfelter and Quandt re-calculations demonstrate a very high Spearman rank order correlation coeficient of .923.
Replications
Some critics argued that French red wines would age better than the California reds, so this conjecture 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.[2]
On January 11, 98 evaluators blind-tasted the same Chardonnays earlier tasted in Paris.
- Template:USA – 1974 Chalone Winery
- Template:USA – 1973 Chateau Montelena
- Template:USA – 1973 Spring Mountain Vineyard
- Template:FRA – 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 January 12, 99 evaluators blind-tasted the same Cabernet Sauvignons earlier tasted in Paris.
- Template:USA – 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
- Template:USA – 1970 Heitz Wine Cellars Martha’s vineyard
- Template:USA – 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello
- Template:FRA – 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild.
Ranking lower were Château Montrose 1970, Château Haut-Brion 1970, and Château Leoville Las Cases 1971.
Tenth anniversary Tastings
Two tastings were conducted on the tenth anniversary of the original Paris Wine Tasting. White wines were not evaluated in the belief that they were past their prime.
French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986
Steven Spurrier, who organized the latter 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
- Template:USA - Clos Du Val Winery 1972
- Template:USA - Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello
- Template:FRA - Château Montrose
- Template:FRA - Château Leoville Las Cases 1971
- Template:FRA - Château Mouton Rothschild 1970
- Template:USA - Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973
- Template:USA - Heitz Wine Cellars 1970
- Template:USA - Mayacamas Vineyards 1971
- Template:FRA - Château Haut-Brion
Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986
Four of the judges were experts from the Wine Spectator and two were outsiders. All tasted the wines blind.
- Results
Rank Wine
- Template:USA - Heitz Wine Cellars 1970
- Template:USA - Mayacamas Vineyards 1971
- Template:USA - Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello
- Template:USA - Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973
- Template:USA - Clos Du Val Winery 1972
- Template:FRA - Château Montrose 1970
- Template:FRA - Château Mouton Rothschild 1970
- Template:FRA - Château Leoville Las Cases 1971
- Template:USA - Freemark Abbey Winery 1967
- Template:FRA - Château Haut-Brion 1970
The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary
A 30-year 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 honours 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" [10]
- Results
- Template:USA - Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971
- Template:USA - Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973
- Template:USA - Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 (tie)
- Template:USA - Heitz Wine Cellars 'Martha's Vineyard' 1970 (tie)
- Template:USA - Clos Du Val Winery 1972
- Template:FRA - Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970
- Template:FRA - Château Montrose 1970
- Template:FRA - Château Haut-Brion 1970
- Template:FRA - Château Leoville Las Cases 1971
- Template:USA - Freemark Abbey Winery 1967
Conclusion
The replications over a period of 30 years demonstrate that, even with very different judges, a clear pattern existed in which California wines increased their rankings. In 1976, two California wine were ranked among the top half but by 2006, all five of the top wines were from California. This pattern over time does not support the hypothesis that the ranks are meaningless but that, to the contrary, they reflect a significant improvement in the California wines compared to the French wines that was recognized by experts in blind tastings.
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.[4] 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." [11] The result has been the improvement of wine around the world to the benefit of consumers.[1]
Films
There are plans for two feature films that dramatise the wine tasting. These are Judgement of Paris based on George Taber's book and Bottle Shock.[12].
See also
References
- 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.
- McCoy, E. The Emperor of Wine. NY: harperCollins, 2005
- 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.
External links
- 1976 Paris Wine Tasting. California Trumps France: An Upset in the World of Wine from Musings on the Vine.
- Paris tasting recreated for 30th anniversary - News article on the 30th anniversary tasting
- "The Judgment of Paris: What the French didn't learn from the legendary wine-tasting." 30th anniversary article from Slate.com.
- Delta-Sky Magazine
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