42nd Anniversary of the Judgment of Paris
Next Thursday, May 24, is the 42nd Anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, widely considered the tasting that vaulted California wine onto the international stage. We asked Steven Spurrier, the creator and organizer of that historic event, what the Judgment of Paris has meant to him. Steven responded:
“A couple of years ago my 8 year old grandson asked ‘Grandpa, why are you famous?’ All I needed to do was to show him George Taber’s book ‘Judgment of Paris’ whose subtitle was ‘the historic 1976 Paris Tasting that revolutionized wine.’ While this event did make me famous, it turned out to be a ‘win-win’ situation for both California and France, but more importantly it created a template whereby unknown wines of quality could be tasted blind against known wines of quality and if the judges themselves were of quality, their opinion would be respected. The best example of this was Eduardo Chadwick’s 2004 Berlin Tasting. Paris 1976 opened the game to all comers.”