BEHIND the J U D G M E N T o f PA R I S : N A PA VA L L E Y ’ S
Compelling Impact on the
World of Wine Today BY MARK GUDGEL
Steven Spurrier at Clos Du Val Photo by Rocco Ceselin courtesy of Clos du Val
When Patricia GastaudGallagher, an American working as a writer in Paris, proposed a tasting of American wines to her English employer, Steven Spurrier, Spurrier was intrigued. Gallagher never envisioned a blind tasting nor a competition, but Spurrier, an impeccably-dressed wine merchant with a shop, a wine school, and a devil-may-care approach to business, felt that a blind tasting was the most earnest way to approach such a thing. Besides, reasoned Spurrier, the results were predictable; the French wines would surely win.
T
he problem arose, of course, when they did not. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon triumphed over the best of Bordeaux’s left bank, while Chateau Montelena’s Chardonnay was victorious over the giants of Bourgogne. Spurrier and the rest of the judges were shocked, and George Taber’s short article about the tasting in Time Magazine has since been heralded as perhaps the most critical piece of wine writing ever composed. The setting was France, the judges were French, the results were a scandal, and the impact was as everlasting as it was profound. The true impact of these unlikely results, artfully termed “The Judgment of Paris” by Taber after the event that sparked the Trojan War, was that the myth of unparalleled French terroir and winemaking was shattered, and the reality that excellent wine can be made all around the globe began to come into focus. Warren Winiarski, winemaker of the winning Cabernet, pointed out that it was a victory for America and the world. To put it another way, the reason that South African Pinotage, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Argentine Malbec, and Lebanese Bordeaux blends are readily available on wine lists worldwide can be to a large extent traced to this singular occurrence in Paris nearly fifty years ago.
SPRING 2022
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