If you’re big into wine history, check out the following story from the SFGate. It tells of the wine tasting event in France back in 1976, when French judges chose a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay from Napa Valley as superior to the best from their mother country in a blind tasting in Paris.
Out of the many, many wine books that I have read of late, nearly all of them have pointed to this event as a major milestone in wine history. Before this event, wine was equated almost uniquely as a French product. Afterwards? Not so much.
My favorite bit?
“That is definitely California. It has no nose,” one judge said of a 1973 Batard Montrachet from Burgundy.
Raymond Oliver, described by Taber as the doyen of French culinary writers, exclaimed, “Ah, back to France!” as he happily sipped a Chardonnay from Napa Valley’s Freemark Abbey winery.
It’s a nice read, and relates to a new book that’s coming out – “Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine“. I may have to pick me up a copy
