Judgment of Paris

New in paperback! Told for the first time by the only reporter present, the full story of the mythic Paris Tasting of 1976--a blind tasting where a panel of esteemed French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best--an event that revolutionized the world of wine. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at a now-famous blind tasting in Paris in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result, sparking a golden age for viticulture that extend beyond Frances borders--in Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand--and across the glove.