"Judgement of Paris" reenactment attendees sitting in judgment
I don’t often write about events that have already passed and that not many people (including me) would have been able to participate in anyway. But the tasting event that the Nashville Wine Auction put on at the Union Station Hotel on April 11 was pretty remarkable, so I will remark.
Fifty years ago, most global oenophiles still looked down their noses at wines from California, especially when compared to the great houses of France. In May 1976, a British wine merchant named Steve Spurrier (no, not that one) and an American named Patricia Gallagher invited a panel of French wine experts to a head-to-head tasting of French and American chardonnays and French Bordeaux wines versus cabernet sauvignons from California.
The wines were tasted blind and judged on a 20-point scale. Nobody expected American wines to measure up against the French, but a Napa white and a Napa red won both halves of the tasting. The French judges were aghast, with one judge demanding her ballot back. But numbers are numbers, and Chateau Montelena was named best white and Stag’s Leap won among the reds.
The tasting has been reenacted several times through the decades, usually with similar results. The Nashville Wine Auction created an auction lot at one of its recent events to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris by bringing together eight wine professionals, plus guests who purchased seats at a recent auction to taste their way through nine whites and 10 reds and score them on the same 20-point scale as in 1976.
Nationally acclaimed wine authority Karen MacNeil led the tasting and evaluation as moderator, reminding participants that California has come a long way since the first tasting.
“The wines we tasted represent the same vintners who were on the table in 1976,” says Loren Chumley, president and CEO of Nashville Wine Auction, in a press release following the event. “While some of the French estates have been producing wine for centuries, many of the California wineries were just getting their start 50 years ago. Today, they are all performing at an exceptionally high level. That consistency reflects a sustained commitment to quality, precision, and continuous improvement — and I felt incredibly fortunate to taste them side by side in this setting.”
In the end, a Monterey County white was the favorite among the assembled group, and a very well-known French red took home the prize on that half of the tasting. The results were categorized by winners chosen by the eight wine professionals in attendance and those chosen by the entire group of participants. The wine professionals' rankings of their top wines differed in interesting ways, particularly the whites. Tasters noted that it was more difficult to analyze the young red wines because they were still very powerful and only hinting at the complexity that might evolve with more age.
Top Three White Wines
Chalone Vineyard Estate Grown Chardonnay 2024
Joseph Drouhin “Clos des Mouches” Beaune 1er Cru 2023
Spring Mountain Vineyard “Heitz Vineyard” Chardonnay 2024
Top Three Red Wines
Château Mouton Rothschild 2020
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars “SLV” Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 (the 1973 Stag’s Leap won the 1976 tasting for red wines)
Ridge “Monte Bello” 2021
Wine Professionals' Top Three White Wines
Domaine Leflaive Les Pucelles Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru 2022
Chateau Montelena 2023 (the 1973 Chateau Montelena won the 1976 tasting)
Spring Mountain Vineyard “Heitz Vineyard” Chardonnay 2024
Wine Professionals' Top Three Red Wines
Château Mouton Rothschild 2020
Ridge Monte Bello 2021
Château Haut-Brion 2020 (the 1970 Haut-Brion was also third in the 1976 tasting)
In the end, the most important part of the event was the opportunity to participate in a re-creation of a historic tasting — while helping support the Nashville Wine Auction’s mission to unite the wine community through exceptional events that educate, inspire and support its mission to fund the fight against cancer.
