The Judgment of
Paris
For those of you who from time to time
enjoy a good wine, today is the anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, the
competition in 1976 between the then still young California wine industry and
the venerable French vintages. The
competition was sponsored by a seller of French wines and was intended to
reinforce their position as the dominant vintners.
It did not turn out so well. Overall the California wines (including one
of my favorites Stag’s Leap) prevailed.
Some of the judges (they were all French) tried to recover their score
cards.
George Tabor wrote a book about the competition that includes
background information of some of the wineries involved and the (generally
dismal) history of wine production in the US after Prohibition. Since then the
story has changed.
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