1976 · Paris
The Judgement of Paris
A blind tasting in which Californian wines beat French benchmarks, and the credibility of New World wine changed overnight.
What happened
The British merchant Steven Spurrier organised a blind tasting in Paris comparing Californian Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon against top white Burgundy and classed-growth Bordeaux.
The judges were French and eminent. A Californian wine came top in both the red and the white flights.
The result was reported by a single journalist present, George Taber of Time, and the story spread from there.
Its significance was reputational rather than technical: it demonstrated publicly that geography did not guarantee quality, and it accelerated investment and confidence across the New World.
It is often described as proving Californian wine "better" than French. It was one tasting, with a small panel and a small sample, and several judges disputed the scoring afterwards. What it genuinely demonstrated is that experienced tasters could not reliably tell the difference — which was itself the significant finding.
How firmly this is dated
Documented. Recorded contemporaneously. The date is not in question.
Contemporary reporting, the scoresheets, and the subsequent statistical re-analyses of them.
What people get wrong
Corrections this event bears on directly.
Sources
Sources consulted
- American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) — Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), US Department of the Treasury