In the United States, 1976 was a year of celebration. The nation marked the Bicentennial – the grand celebration of two hundred years of independence and the founding of the United States of America – with more than six thousand projects involving twenty-five million people. For a country that had just emerged from the Vietnam War, this look back also signalled a new beginning. That year, Democrat Jimmy Carter was set to defeat Republican Gerald Ford in the presidential election. NASA’s Viking 1 probe achieved the first successful landing on the planet Mars. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company Apple.
In the run-up to the bicentennial celebrations, Patricia Gallagher was also giving the matter some thought. The American was one of the two managing directors of the Académie du Vin, a wine school run by the Englishman Steven Spurrier alongside his wine shop, Cave de la Madeleine, in Paris. Having tasted a number of promising new American wines in the past, she suggested to Spurrier that they hold a tasting of Californian wines. He warmed to the idea, and so in the autumn of 1975 she embarked on an initial exploratory tour arranged by wine journalist Robert Finigan.
A new generation
What seemed rather eccentric from a European perspective at the time was long overdue in American eyes. “Inexpensive Californian table wines are of significantly higher quality than the local wine consumed by the French working class,” Time Magazine had noted in the early 1970s. “The great Château wines from France still outshine the best of the New World, but the gap is closing.” Yet this development was only a few years old. Or to be more precise: after an unprecedented rollercoaster ride, Californian viticulture had only been on the upswing again for about six years.
Patricia Gallagher and Steven Spurrier, who had also come to California to make the final selection for the tasting, did not focus on the established wineries, whose lustre had either faded or whose products had declined significantly in quality following their sale to large corporations, but rather on the top wines of the young generation of winemakers. This small group consisted of around fifteen estates, winegrowers and winemakers of very different characters with fundamentally different backgrounds. Yet precisely because the wine scene in California was so manageable, they shared some identical stages in their careers, which were partly responsible for a high degree of agreement on fundamental oenological convictions.
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars
This is particularly true of the producers of the two winning wines: the 1973 Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon by Warren Winiarski and the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay by Miljenko ‘Mike’ Grgich. Warren Winiarski came from a family of Polish immigrants (whose surname means ‘son of the winemaker’) in Chicago and had studied political philosophy under Lévi Strauss. A year of study in Italy convinced him to go to California to become a winemaker. He secured a job at Lee Stewart’s Souverain Cellars, which had been founded in 1944 as a pioneering estate for high-quality wine in the Howell Mountains of Napa Valley. He then moved to Robert Mondavi as a winemaker, who taught him the standards for top-quality wine production. After a stopover in Colorado, where he was tasked with establishing the local wine industry, he acquired – following an almost desperate search for co-investors (he is said to have even asked the family’s babysitter for a stake) – a plot of land not far from Yountville, in the hills east of the Silverado Trail, which was predominantly planted with fruit trees but also featured a few vines.
This area was actually considered too cool for Cabernet Sauvignon, but James Lider, California’s first consultant on vineyard management, had recommended this grape variety to the previous owner, Nathan Fay, in Stag’s Leap in 1961, so that seedlings from Martha’s Vineyard, just a few kilometres away, had been planted there. Before the purchase, Warren Winiarski had tasted a glass of Fay’s 1968 Cabernet, which had thoroughly impressed him; this quickly settled the question of which vines he should grow at Stag’s Leap. In 1973, under the guidance of André Tchelistcheff, the first vintage of Stag’s Leap Vineyard (later abbreviated to ‘SLV’) Cabernet Sauvignon was produced in the newly built Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Warren Winiarski was somewhat unsure about the right time to harvest that year, and when he gave André Tchelistcheff a few berries to taste in the vineyard, the latter simply sighed: “Honey, divine honey.”
Chateau Montelena
Wine had already been produced at Chateau Montelena, an enchanting estate on the northern edge of Napa Valley in the historic spa town of Calistoga, as early as 1882. During Prohibition, wine production had been abandoned, and after the ownership had changed hands several times, the estate was taken over in 1968 by a group of investors, including the lawyer James Barrett, who began replanting the vineyards and rebuilding the winery. However, he took the decisive step by hiring Mike Grgich as winemaker. Grgich had studied viticulture in his native Croatia and had come to the United States on a student exchange programme.
In 1958, Lee Stewart had offered him his first job at Souverain, and, like Warren Winiarski, he went on to work for a few years at Robert Mondavi, where, together with André Tchelistcheff, he experimented intensively with cold fermentation, yeast selection during malolactic fermentation and microfiltration. In May 1972, after having been responsible for a whole range of first-class wines at Mondavi, he received an offer from Chateau Montelena, which, in addition to his duties as winemaker, also provided for a stake in the estate. Cabernet Sauvignon was also of great importance at Montelena, but a Chardonnay was also produced, with almost half the grapes coming from Sonoma, in particular from Helen Bacigalupi, the owner of Bacigalupi Vineyards in the Russian River Valley. When she let Mike Grgich taste her grapes in the summer of 1973, he was over the moon: “My goodness, these are the finest grapes I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The French perspective
Steven Spurrier had gathered a select group of French wine critics for the tasting on 24 May 1976 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Paris. Among them were Odette Kahn, director of the Revue des Vins de France, Michel Dovaz from the Institut Oenologique de France, and Aubert de Villaine from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. They expected to taste various American wines, the quality of which was generally considered on a par with the Vins de Pays of southern France. Yet despite their ostentatious display of indifference, they were also curious. Not only had news of significant technical innovations in American oenology reached French wine critics. Above all, however, the first major French estates had put out feelers towards California and had even already invested there on a large scale.
Moët-Hennessy, for example, had found suitable vineyards for a high-quality Champagne counterpart in Napa Valley and had founded Domaine Chandon California in Yountville in 1973. André Portet, the technical director of Château Lafite, had also been searching worldwide for high-quality sites since 1968, albeit for the cultivation of Cabernet Sauvignon. His two sons founded Clos du Val in 1971 in the immediate vicinity of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars – their 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon was to take 8th place in the Judgement of Paris. And right at the start of the 1970s, a representative of Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton-Rothschild had met with Robert Mondavi in Hawaii to explore a possible collaboration – an encounter that would give rise, a few years later, to the joint venture ‘Opus One’, as an expression of a partnership of equals between the French and the Californians.
The arrogance of the Grande Nation
These facts had ensured that, within the French wine industry, the initial indifference towards Californian wines had given way to a certain irritation. When Steven Spurrier announced to the participants at the tasting at the Interconti that the selection of Californian red and white wines would be competing in a blind tasting against some top wines from Burgundy (for the Chardonnays) and Bordeaux (for the Cabernet Sauvignons), the reaction was a condescending shrug. The comments on record bear witness to the unshakeable self-assurance of the French tasters of those years: “It’s easy to spot the Californians” – “Oh, no aroma, that must be a Californian” – “Ah, finally back to France”. Yet the wine with no aroma was a Bâtard-Montrachet and the so-called ‘typical French’ wine was a 1972 Napa Chardonnay.
The outcome of the tasting is history: California–France 2–0. La Grande Nation was humiliated. Outraged tasters tried to get their scorecards back into their possession. On the very same day, attempts began to discredit the result and the tasting as a whole, not least Steven Spurrier personally. There was little to be said against the selection of French wines: after all, it included Château Haut-Brion, Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Léoville Las Cases among the reds, and Guy Roulot’s Meursault-Charmes, Domaine Ramonet’s Bâtard-Montrachet and Domaine Leflaive’s Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles among the whites, all from good to very good vintages.
A tasting becomes legendary
One of the main objections – that Californian wines displayed their full fruit and richness whilst young and were not suited to ageing, which was precisely what defined the class of French wines – was only gradually refuted. In the years that followed, the tasting was frequently repeated, with the Californians consistently coming out on top. However, due to the absence of French critics, they received little recognition. It was not until the re-tasting marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Judgement of Paris, held simultaneously in Napa and London in 2006 and focusing exclusively on red wines, that the critics were silenced. The panel of judges included not only two of the French tasters from the Paris event but also some of the most respected figures in the wine world, such as Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent, Jancis Robinson and Michel Bettane: Once again, California triumphed, this time with the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello taking first place ahead of the Paris winner, the 1973 Stag’s Leap, whilst the best French wine, a Château Mouton-Rothschild, came in sixth.
By this point, the result of the Paris tasting had already profoundly changed the wine world. In fact, the tasting would have gone almost unnoticed because Steven Spurrier, the future editor of the British wine magazine Decanter, had been unable to persuade any members of the press to attend. It was only thanks to the fact that Patricia Gallagher had invited Time Magazine reporter George M. Taber, whom she knew from one of her wine courses, that a journalist was present at this historic event at all. His report was somewhat low-key and gave little sense of the event’s true significance, yet it set the ball rolling.
The Transformation of the American Eden
The American Eden, as Napa Valley is often called – a place where traditional American family farming still set the tone in the mid-1970s – became a magnet for investors from all over the world. Incredible amounts of money flowed into the valley, transforming the region – though not always for the better. Wine from Napa became fashionable not only on the East Coast, but also among sommeliers and collectors worldwide. Farmers became stars, countless boutique wineries sprang up and claimed cult status for themselves. This led to a particular shift in the style of the wines: those of the post-Judgement era became increasingly ripe and full-bodied, especially following the opulent 1997 vintage. Big egos were in search of big flavour. You could love it or hate it, and so the Californian style polarised wine critics worldwide.
It was only after the Judgement of Paris that Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay established themselves as the leading grape varieties in other emerging wine regions too. The tasting inspired Italy, Spain, Chile and many other countries, and it was to take only a few years before their wines celebrated comparable successes in wine competitions or similar events. With some delay, however, the tasting also motivated the motherland to take up the challenge. France’s wines are also better today than ever before, not least thanks to this historic defeat. And in the London Liv-ex Index, which tracks price fluctuations of top wines on the market, relatively few Californian wines are represented, with an overwhelming dominance of wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux.
A National Heritage
This in no way diminishes the significance of the Paris tasting. Today, the two winners, the 1973 Stag’s Leap SLV and the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, are on display in the permanent exhibition of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, alongside Neil Armstrong’s space suit and Abraham Lincoln’s top hat, as part of the ‘101 Objects That Made America’. The event has been made into a Hollywood film (‘Bottle Shock’, which centred on the family of James Barrett), and because absolutely nothing in that film is accurate – the Montelena Chardonnay was ‘NEVER brown or discoloured’ (Mike Grgich) −, an alternative project was developed for a time to tell the story of the true heroes, Mike Grgich and Warren Winiarski. “Not bad for kids from the sticks,” was the comment from the owner of Chateau Montelena after he had learnt of the results of the Judgement of Paris. Yet, at least in the Old World, one should have known: that Paris chooses Helen(a) is, after all, one of the oldest stories in the world.
Not bad for kids from the sticks.
Jim Barrett, Chateau Montelena
California Past & Future: Ein Tasting 50 years after
Fifty years later, a masterclass by Elaine Chukan Brown at Wine Paris explored the legacy of the legendary tasting. Chukan Brown, who is deeply familiar with the subject matter not only as the author of the book ‘The Wines of California’ (2025), did not simply compare the flights from back then once again: Instead, Chukan Brown asked about the significance of the tasting for California’s wine industry and how the wines have changed since then. In short: about their past and future.
To this end, in collaboration with California Wine and its training platform Capstone, as well as the participating wineries, she put together four pairs of ‘matching’ wines, each comprising one from the current 2022 vintage and one from the 1990s. Included were white wines from Chateau Montelena, the sensational winner among the Chardonnays in 1976, as well as Cabernet Sauvignons from Clos du Val (Hirondelle Vineyard), Ridge Vineyards (Monte Bello) and the Robert Mondavi Winery (To Kalon). Although the latter had not taken part, it was regarded at the time as ‘Mondavi University’ due to its significance for California’s young winemakers. Both Warren Winiarski and Mike Grgich, two protagonists of the Paris Tasting as cellar masters of the red wine winner Stag’s Leap and Château Montelena respectively, had worked there.
The legacy of the Paris Tasting
Half a century on, however, brings not only continuity but also some disruption. Chukan Brown pointed out right at the start that little in the vineyards today recalls the past, largely due to the phylloxera crisis of the 1990s and the subsequent extensive replanting. Chateau Montelena’s Chardonnay came, particularly in the early years, partly from Sonoma. Here, as was evident from the very mature 1991 (despite being a magnum) and the outstanding, slightly reductive 2023, the approach to sulphur has changed significantly. The next flight, Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon 1992 versus 2022, both from the Hirondelle Vineyard, showcased two completely different styles. On the one hand, classic old-school Napa, which now displays an elegance almost reminiscent of Burgundy. And then the new Napa style, with a luxurious texture achieved through refined tannin management and distinctive, ‘expensive’ oak. Both are very good wines, but the younger one almost overwhelms you, particularly with 15 per cent alcohol compared to 13 per cent in the 1992.
At Ridge Vineyards, there is greater continuity. For instance, there have been no new plantings here, and the effects of climate change are less pronounced at the high altitude of Monte Bello. The 1997 Monte Bello, at 12.9 per cent, has an alcohol content only slightly lower than the 2022 (13.8 per cent). Furthermore, the profile of the wines has changed little over the decades, thanks in part to the limestone soil, which produces taut, mineral-driven Cabernets. Both vintages of Monte Bello stood out from the field thanks to their high acidity. Whilst the 2022 still appears very closed, the 1997 is in top form with its high, multi-layered density and long, salty finish.
The Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from Robert Mondavi Winery, sourced from the To-Kalon Vineyard (1995 versus 2022), by contrast, demonstrated the stylistic shift more clearly. A higher proportion of new oak, particularly a significantly longer ageing period in wood, coupled with a markedly higher alcohol content. The 1995 vintage proved to be in good form after some aeration, despite a slight malty note. Nevertheless, the current vintage seemed to come from another planet: powerful, hedonistic, yet also possessing depth and great length. These are two wines from two very different eras: that of the Mondavi family and that of Constellation.
This aspect too – the transition in California from ‘family farming’ to large external investors – is certainly part of the picture when attempting to define the legacy of the ‘Paris Tasting’. Even though Elaine Chukan Brown left this question aside, one can nevertheless agree with her observation that the 1976 tasting served as the starting signal for California’s top wineries to embark on the overwhelming development of their wine production that continues to this day.
Image credits
Film poster: Found on Cinematerial.com, copyright held by the film studio
All other images: Stefan Pegatzky / Time Tunnel Images
The historic ‘Bear Flag’ shown in the lead image is from Harlan Estate, Oakville
Note
The historical section of this article first appeared in a revised version in FINE – Das Weinmagazin 3/2016 alongside reports by Stefan Pegatzky on Inglenook, Ridge Vineyards and Heitz Cellars. The series continued with articles on Newton Vineyard, Vérité Winery, Schrader Cellars (FINE 4/2016), Robert Mondavi Winery, Opus One, Continuum Estate (FINE 3/2017), Grace Family Vineyards, Harlan Estate and Realm Cellars (FINE 4/2017). In FINE 4/2023, an article on Freemark Abbey also appeared as part of a series on Jackson Family Wines estates.
