Judgment of Paris 50th Anniversary
May 24th, 2026 marks the 50th Anniversary of the iconic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 better known as the Judgment of Paris.
A tasting for the history books
What Happened?
On May 24th, 1976 a panel of eleven judges gathered at the intercontinental hotel in Paris, France to taste two blind flights of wines (Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon) from Bordeaux, Burgundy and California.
Stephen Spurrier was a wine merchant and owner of L'Academie du Vin, a wine education school in Paris. He knew he was taking some risk blind tasting French and American wines, but never expected what would happen next. American producers would rank #1 in BOTH flights.
Chateau Montelena and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars shocked the judges by taking top placements in flights their French counterparts expected to win.
Of course controversy ensued. Judges denounced the results, the French wine press dismissed it, and Spurrier was blamed for disgracing top burgundy and bordeaux producers. French wine officials contended that if the wines were tasted again at 10-years or 20-years it would be different. In 2006, with 30-years of age on the Cabernets, a reprise of the tasting had American wines win again ... with Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon taking top honors.
How will it play out at 50-years?
Photo Credit: Bella Spurrier
The Legacy
The Great Wine Awakening
Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher were interviewed a number of times over the past 50-years regarding the execution of the tasting and their thoughts on the results and fallout.
Patricia Gallagher was working for Spurrier and L'Academie du Vin in 1975, and became a bit of a magnet for American wine enthusiasts traveling to Paris. Occasionally, they would come with some Californian wines in hand. It was Gallagher's idea to have a tasting to celebrate the bicentennial of America's independence.
Curious after tasting some examples, Steven traveled to California to taste wines in early 1976 and would ultimately choose lesser known names in California at that time getting their start to participate.
As a native of California having family in Los Angeles, Patricia would travel home and arranged to fly the wines back to Paris. At the gate she learned of bottle limits,and it was Patricia, not Bo Barrett, that would heroically get the wines to France in fellow passengers luggage.
Over the coming years the full impact of the outcome of this tasting would be felt. Napa would expand plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon dramatically from est. 4,800 acres to over 24,000 acres today. Growing regions from Walla Walla to Maipo Valley would adopt Cabernet Sauvignon at an increasing rate.
The concept of the superiority of France as the premier wine producing power in the world would be shaken for consumers, sommeliers and distributors who became more open to wines from all over the world.
Spurrier would suffer the consequences as persona non grata in the Paris wine community, but his impact was tremendous. Famously Odette Kahn never spoke to him again, but could not dispute the fairness of how the tasting was conducted. Philippe de Rothschild was outraged by the result, but ultimately had is mind was opened to CA. Soon thereafter he joined Robert Mondavi in the creation of Opus One.
By the time of the 30th Anniversary in 2006 the only question was how well did these wines stand the test of time. The answer? Wonderfully. The 1971 Ridge Monte Bello placed first in a trans-atlantic tasting, and the next four wines were all from California as well.
