Judgment of Paris II: Results
Round No.2 of France vs. Californian wines, has gone to the Americans. The first “Judgment of Paris” [Wikipedia] put on by Steven Spurrier in 1976 produced the same result. Now, 30 years later, the tasting has been repeated, and the American wines took 1st through 5th place, while the wines from Bordeaux garnered the next 4 spots, followed by a Cabernet from the U.S.
Two panels of 9 expert tasters each convened in London, and Napa Valley, to analyze 6 cabernets from California and 4 from Bordeaux from the original tasting, blind. The experts could look at a list of the 10 wines being served, but did not know which wine was in each glass. The panel was joined by 31 other tasters at each location, and tasted California Chardonnay, White Burgundy, young Bordeaux from the 2000 Vintage, and young California Cabernet from 2000 - 2002. These wines were tasted against their peers only, not against the other country. Jancis Robinson was on the expert panel, and has the results available in excel format on her website.
The Final Combined U.S. / U.K. Panel Results for the original 10 wines:
1- Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971
2- Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973
3- Heitz Cellar Martha’s Vineyard 1970 tied with Mayacamas Vineyards 1971
5- Clos Du Val 1972
6- Château Mouton Rothschild 1970
7- Château Montrose 1970
8- Château Haut-Brion 1970
9- Château Léoville Las Cases 1971
10- Freemark Abbey 1969
More coverage via Decanter, Copia, The Napa Valley Register and The San Francisco Chronicle as well as interesting comments on the erobertparker forum.
May 25th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Thanks for pointing out that BB thread. What struck me the most was how poorly informed the participants in the BB were about the event! We’ve been talking about it in the wine blogosphere for weeks!
Why is there so little overlap between blogs and BBs? Well, maybe that’s a broader question than you had bargained for…
May 26th, 2006 at 8:45 am
Dr. Vino,
Perhaps the answer lies in the nature of each medium. The focus of blogs seems to be keeping up with wine news and information (at least, that’s my focus), whereas the focus of a Public bulletin board is to chat about wine, tasting notes, etc.
They both serve a purpose; I enjoy the casual talk found on bulletin boards, but I keep up with wine news via blogs. Blogs to me have become the new Wine Magazine: insightful articles written by passionate people, on varying topics. The best thing is the quick turnaround of stories on a blog. Couple that with comments from readers, and you have one great place to turn to for your daily wine fix.