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50 years ago, a little-known contest changed California forever · Best of: Features

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  Fifty years ago a little known contest changed California forever. Written by
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  Jessica Yadegarin. This article is being read by an automated voice generated
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  by Everlett. As a young journalist, I was always enchanted by a
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  story told in wine media circles. It's the ultimate underdog yarn, about
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  the surprise moment when once Scrappy California triumphed over French winemakers for
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  the very first time, forever changing the way the world viewed not
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  just the state, but America. In May nineteen seventy six, a British
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  wine merchant named Steve Spurrier and his associate Patricia Gallagher set off
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  for Paris with twelve California wine Chardonnays and six cabernets in their
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  luggage. To mark America's bicentennial, they had arranged a blind tasting of
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  California's best wines against the formidable wines of France. Anyone at they
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  time would have told you this was silly. Fine wine, according to
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  popular opinion, was made in France, nowhere else. But the joke was
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  on the nine elite French judges. During the clandestine tasting, in which
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  they had only scorecards and the
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  wine in their glasses, the jury made comments they would regret. Thus
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  is definitely California. It has no nose, one judge quipped while drinking
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  a batarde mantrachet. Ah, back to France proclaimed another, sipping a Napa
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  Valley Chardonnay. When the scores were tallied, Time magazine's George Tabor, the
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  only journalist present and thus the official record keeper, shared the results.
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  Unbeknownst to the panel, they had placed California wines at the top
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  of both The red, nineteen seventy three Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, and
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  White, nineteen seventy three Shadow Montalina, Flights, albeit by a hair. The
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  French jury favored the red by one point five points. With Spurrier's
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  and Gallagher's scores figured in, it won by a half point. Still
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  it was unprecedented. They ripple effects of the judgment of Paris, as
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  it became known, and the challenge to French prestige would eventually transform
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  global winemaking. Today, rather than fussing over Old World wines from big
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  European houses, bars and restaurants across the globe are as likely to
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  pour an unfussy bottle of Georgian saburavi as they are something from
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  the central coast's Santa Rita hills. At the time, however, it didn't
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  have much impact. Tabor's was the only coverage appearing as four paragraphs
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  tucked away on page fifty eight of Times june seventh, nineteen seventy
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  six, issue. In it he quoted Montalina's general manager and part owner,
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  Jim Barrett, summing up the historic win. Not bad for kids from
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  the sticks, Barrett said. The nineteen seventy three bottle fetched six dollars.
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  Golden Anniversary Harsh Reality. Fifty years later, on a recent Sunday, I
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  wandered The lavish halls of Stag's Leap Wine cellars, swirling a glass
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  of the silky twenty twenty three SLV Cabinet Sauvignon, which retails today
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  for two hundred and fifty dollars. The day's tasting marked the battle's
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  fiftieth anniversary, with all eight of the Napa Valley wineries pouring their
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  wines alongside bites from several Thomas Keller restaurants. The event was one
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  of at least a dozen judgment commemorations so far this year. The
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  original showdown happened on may twenty fourth, so that week was particularly
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  busy, with reenactments and tribute dinners from San Francisco to New York,
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  as well as exhibitions at UC Davis and the Smithsonian. The crowd
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  at Stag's Leap very much matched They wines, older and moneyed. I
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  spotted logos for Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent, and more exotic animal
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  skinned cowboy boots than I ever knew existed. I don't think I
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  saw a patron under thirty five. At the table for Height Cellar
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  which had on offer a six hundred and sixty dollar cab from
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  twenty sixteen, I met two charming couples from Texas. The women told
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  me the make an annual trip to Napa Valley to support Spring
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  Mountain, their favorite viticultural area. They gushed over the judgment, and I
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  found myself gushing right along with them. It's just such an American
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  story, one told me, likening it to the Alamo. It certainly is.
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  But, as I nibbled on truffled nudie from Bouchon and washed it
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  down with a silky two hundred and twenty five dollars Fremark Abbey
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  Cabernet Beauche, I couldn't help but wonder whether this all still mattered.
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  California doesn't have anything to prove any more. If anything, given the
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  current, harsh economic realities, shouldn't the industry be focused on affordable wines
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  that appeal to a younger demographic, instead of luxe triple digit products
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  collected by a very small group of people? California wineries are filing
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  for bankruptcy, laying off workers or closing entirely, vines are being ripped
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  out, And high end juice is filling private label grocery store bottles
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  in unprecedented volumes. Eager to discuss the issue, I reached out to
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  friend and famed wine writer and judge, Alder Yarrow after the tasting.
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  Yarrow runs the long running Venography blog and answered my question without
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  pause. I think it's long past time to drop this judgment of
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  Fill in the Blank, he said. The event didn't matter at the
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  time that it happened. America made it matter in the decades that
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  followed. It might be the single greatest marketing campaign in the history
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  of wine It was very effective, and it has fueled an incredible
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  journey for California. I saw his point. I vividly recall being part
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  of that journey twenty years ago. I was barely thirty, and invited
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  to be a judge at the thirtieth anniversary organized by Spurrier himself.
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  Naturally, I freaked out. I remember thinking it was so important. But
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  two thousand six was a different time for California's wine industry, which
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  generates eighty four billion dollars a year in total economic activity. Now,
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  after years of constant investment, a serious reduction in consumption is painfully
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  resizing the industry, and those who are left will need to figure
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  out how to make better quality wine for less money and make
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  it enjoyable for younger people who don't want to feel like the
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  have to be educated to drink it, Yarrow said. The silver lining.
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  There is one part of the story that I feel everyone, including
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  younger people, needs to know, that this one point five point win
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  opened the doors to win making in the New world, from Chile
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  to New Zealand. The judgment of Paris deeply inspired third generation Argentine
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  vintner Nicholas Katina of Katina Zapata, which in twenty twenty three held
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  the most one hundred point ratings in all of South America. It
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  was inspirational to so many people. Dag's Leap Extate director Juan Muñoz
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  Oka told me. Doctor Katina told me. Personally, when I read that
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  this kid from the Sticks in Northern California had won, it gave
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  me the ability to say Why are we not making Malbecs that
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  can compete with the best wines around the world? I met Munoz
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  Oka toward the end of the Sunday tasting, under the shade of
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  a tree, while nursing the remains of Clause Duval's elegant twenty twenty
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  three Yetalil, two hundred dollars, a bargain. He's a fascinating vintner and
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  straight shooter who hails from Argentina, and has made wine all over
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  the world, from France and Australia to the Pacific Northwest. He sees
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  Napa Valley through that global lens, and brought up the price issue
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  before I did. I have told people for many years that wines
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  don't have to be really expensive in order for them to be
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  enjoyable, and I always felt like Napa was kind of the opposite
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  of my narrative, he said. I always felt like Napa was an
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  expensive proposition. But once you live here, you understand the value and
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  the care that goes into making these wines, and then the entire
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  price point just starts making sense. Still, he said there is work
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  to do, especially now. It's already starting within the Marchisi Aninori organization,
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  which owns Stag's Leap Wine cellars. At their Atlas Peak property they
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  recently dropped a Carbonase price, from one hundred and sixty five to
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  one hundred and twenty dollars, a nearly thirty percent cut. The new
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  price tag is still far beyond easy reach of most casual drinkers,
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  but it's a start. We're just going to invest in the things
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  that will make a difference and find our way on the side
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  of this restructuring, with better prices for consumers and wines that continue
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  to tell a cool story, because ultimately that's the most important thing,
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  he said. The judgment of Paris transformed California wine making, and California
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  food at large, forever. Maybe now, half a century later, letting go
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  of it will do the same.