By George M. Taber

On May 25, 1976 Jim Barrett, the owner of Chateau Montelena, was about to sit down to lunch with a group of California winemakers in France when I, a Time magazine reporter in Paris, called to tell him that a Chateau Montelena wine had won a blind tasting the day before in Paris that included both French and California wines. Barrett replied with historic understatement, “Not bad for kids from the sticks.”

The judges at the tasting were some of the most respected names in French wine, including the editor of the Revue du Vin de France, the country’s leading wine magazine, and the sommeliers of France’s leading restaurants. Chateau Montelena had been judged the best Chardonnay, beating out such French icons as Bâtard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon and Beaune Clos des Mouches Joseph Drouhin. Chateau Montelena had received first-place votes from six of the nine judges. In addition, a Cabernet Sauvignon from California’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars had come in first in the red wine competition over wines like Château Haut-Brion and Château Mouton Rothschild.

The event went into the history books as the Paris Tasting, and it is widely considered the turning point in the development of California wines. In fact, it is now regarded as a major moment in the history of world wines. Wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. has said, “The Paris Tasting destroyed the myth of French supremacy and marked the democratization of the wine world. It was a watershed in the history of wine.” Food-and-wine critic Anthony Dias Blue called the Paris Tasting “the most talked-about winetasting of the [20th] century.”

Steven Spurrier, an Englishman who owned a wine shop and wine school in Paris, organized the event as part of the American bicentennial. Patricia Gallagher, an American, worked for him, and they had both been hearing from visiting Americans about the excellent new wines being made in California and decided it would be interesting to make their French wine friends aware of them. First Gallagher and then Spurrier traveled to the Napa Valley to meet winemakers and try wines on the spot.

They liked what they tasted and decided to stage the event at the Hotel Intercontinental in Paris just down the street from the famed Louvre museum where the Mona Lisa painting is on display. Spurrier selected six California wines and four French wines in both red and white categories. He picked Chardonnays for the white because Californians were specializing in that variety of grape and Cabernet Sauvignons for the red since that is the main grape used in the best Bordeaux wines.

Spurrier says today that he specifically chose French wines he thought would beat the California ones. After all, he ran a business in Paris and his objective was not to humiliate the French judges or French wine.

Spurrier feared French customs agents would seize the California wine because he had earlier had such an experience when trying to get some English wines into France. So he asked a group of California winemakers who were going to make a study trip to France to bring the wines in as hand luggage since they would be allowed two bottles each. The plan worked, and the wine arrived without any problem.

The tasting was carefully run. All the wines were put into neutral bottles, so the judges couldn’t spot the French and California wines simply that way. Names of the wines were picked out of a hat to determine the tasting order. Judges were asked to score the wines on a 20-point scale, then the common method in France.

Chateau Montelena was the runaway winner, scoring 132 points over second place Meursault Charmes Roulot with 126.5.

As the Time reporter who was the only journalist present at the tasting and the one who told Jim Barrett he had won, I have told the full story of the Paris Tasting in a new book. The title is Judgment of Paris—California vs. France in the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. It will be published by Scribner on September 27 and available at bookstores and online at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and other book websites.

On October 3rd, 4th, and 7th from 10 to 4, author George Taber will be at Chateau Montelena to autograph copies of his new book, Judgment of Paris – California vs. France in the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine, which will be published in September. Books will be available for sale in the winery Tasting Room, and guests who purchase a copy will have the $10 tasting fee waived. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to meet the Time reporter who broke the story, and get your copy of his book fresh off the presses!