There has been a number of events in Dublin and elsewhere marking the 50th anniversary of The Judgment of Paris. This was a groundbreaking 1976 tasting event that changed the wine world forever.
Steven Spurrier was an English wine merchant and wine enthusiast based in Paris, where he ran a shop called Cave de la Madeleine specialising in French wine. He also had a wine school, L’Académie du Vin.
Spurrier will be best remembered for a blind tasting that he organised to celebrate the bicentennial of the US in 1976. The original idea was simply to show a group of French wine producers and notables that California could produce good wine. At the time, France was considered the greatest producer in the world, infinitely superior to any new world country. Thus he assembled a line-up of 10 Californian wines (six cabernet, four chardonnay). Fairly late in the day, however, he decided to include 10 top French wines (six Bordeaux, four white Burgundy) to taste alongside. Just a week before the tasting it was decided to make it blind (when tasters do not know the origin of the wines).
The all-French jury ranked the wines in order of preference and, to the shock of all concerned, a Californian came first in both red and white categories, beating wines such as Château Mouton-Rothschild and Meursault Charmes 1er cru Domaine Roulot into second place. The result shocked the wine world and caused uproar in France. The French claimed that the French wines would age better, but at follow-up tastings of the same wines in 1978, 1986, and 2006, tasters still preferred the Californian wines. In 2006 all of the top five red wines were Californian. Spurrier was cold-shouldered and ridiculed by some of the French press. Others simply ignored the event completely. Ironically, Spurrier was a great fan of French wine and thought they would win the taste-off.
Does this prove that Californian wines are superior to French? Probably not, but it certainly suggests that they are every bit as good and at times better. Since the first tasting, other countries, Chile in particular, have held their own “judgment” tastings, with their wines sometimes scoring very well against French opposition too.
Spurrier was a wine enthusiast, a good writer, taster and great company. He also founded the book publisher L’Académie du Vin Library and a vineyard in Devon. But he will always be remembered for The Judement of Paris, a title from Greek Mythology. He died in 2021 aged 79.His autobiography, Wine – A Way of Life, is a great read and includes details of The Judgment of Paris tasting. Alternatively, the movie Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman and Chris Pine, covers the story.