Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Laube on Taber on the Judgment of Paris

From the Wine Spectator:

Thirty years ago, as the U.S. prepared to celebrate its bicentennial, a showdown between French and Californian wines in Paris resulted in one of those "man bites dog" stories.

In a blind tasting, a panel of French experts compared Napa Valley Chardonnays with white Burgundies, and Napa Cabernet Sauvignons with red Bordeaux. The upstart Americans—"the kids from the sticks"—won both flights, led by a 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena (a blend of Napa and Alexander Valley grapes) and a 1973 Napa Valley Cabernet from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. ...

Judgment of Paris is an intelligently written, well-researched, smooth-paced account of the events leading up to the tasting and its aftermath. Fans of California wine will particularly enjoy the first half of the book, which follows the paths of such vintners as Warren Winiarski and Miljenko Grgich from their birthplaces to Napa Valley (where, ironically, they both had their first jobs at Lee Stewart's Souverain winery on Howell Mountain).

The story of how Winiarski's Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet, and Grgich's Chardonnay, made at Chateau Montelena, won the Paris tasting is both a "rags to riches" and "David beats Goliath" tale. Those kinds of stories help keep the American Dream alive.