GIFT IDEA: SOUR GRAPES IN PARIS [When California wines whupped the French ... in Paris]

The New York Post ^ | December 4, 2005 | By RALPH PETERS

[aculeus]

You don't have to dislike the French to enjoy this book, but it doesn't hurt. "Judgment of Paris" recalls how, in 1976, American underdogs bit the big poodle where it really hurt — in the wine culture, where France had been top dog since the Middle Ages.

With the bicentennial of American independence approaching, Steven Spurrier, a Brit wine merchant in Paris, decided it might be interesting to expose French critics to the new wines of California in a blind tasting against the greatest wines of their homeland.

Spurrier wasn't setting a trap. He fully expected the French to win, choosing labels such as Chateau Haut-Brion, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Meursault Charmes and Puligny-Montrachet for the face-off.

[minus_273]

HA HA HA

[Pikachu_Dad]

I'd read it but I don't have access...

Oh well.

[GodfearingTexan]

I bet that what the article went on to say was that they picked the California wines and then vomited and left cursing everything under the sun when they learned they chose the wrong wine.

[moodyskeptic]

Nice!

Wine snobs are frightened by blind tests because they know they will praise the upstarts and trash the accepted leaders. Same with beer snobs. The process embarasses the mighty and rewards the industrious.

It's a beautiful thing to behold, and it goes directly to the free market ethos: quality will, eventually, win over lazy tradition, wealth and privelege.

[Temple Owl]

Viva La Two Buck Chuck

[FreedomPoster]

We visited Stag's Leap a couple of years ago, along with several other nice Napa cabernet purveyors (Silver Oak, Duckhorn, Heitz, Groth, Rombauer).

I decided I could go the rest of my life drinking nothing but $50 a bottle and up Napa cabernets, and nothing else. Unfortunately, were I to attempt this, I would go broke doing it, become an urban outdoorsman, and die young as a penniless pauper.

[Cacique]

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[Bogeygolfer]

I'm not sure I agree with you about the wine but you should have left the beer part out. Some of the best beers have been so and will continue to be indefinately. Unlike wine their are less variables and more consistency. Example A would be Guiness. It is as it was and it will continue to be in the future. Until you've had a Guiness in Ireland you haven't had Guiness.

[FreedomPoster]

Speaking of upstarts, I've recently had occasion to try a Lindeman's Reserve Chard and a Yellowtail Reserve Cab. Both were quite good for the price (under $10). I'd put them up against CA wines in the $15 range.

[FreedomPoster]

http://www.bugmenot.com

[Cacique]

Ping

[minus_273]

read it using this:

user: hello@dodgeit.com
pass: blahblah

[starbase]

It went on to say that the Californian vintners were all risk taking entrepreneurs in pre-boom California (1976). And that the French judges "confidently snickered" as they wrote down their opinions. The were "mortified" to find they had trashed some of the best wines in France. The California Chardonnay was particularly galling (Gauling?) as it placed first. Several other US labels placed first or in the top 4.

It also says that the author of the book was the only reporter there who told about the story, if he had not, no one would have known.

It ends with a spiel for his book that describes the event in question, plus the current wine market, and reviews lots of non-French wines.

At the very end is a little footnote saying the first time the author got drunk, in the 8th grade, it was by stealing an 1899 bottle of Madeira from his dad's cellar! It doesn't say how hard he was beaten for it! :-)

[ConorMacNessa]

Amen.

[Brian Allen]

Go to:

http://www.bugmenot.com

Once there you will find you'll have access to the NYP - and every other newspaper site requiring a login.

[ConorMacNessa]

I don't drink French wines anymore - I've gotten rather fond of Aussie reds in addition to Califs.

[ccmay]

I decided I could go the rest of my life drinking nothing but $50 a bottle and up Napa cabernets, and nothing else.

I'm with you. I had my mom and dad and sister over for a tree trimming party this evening, and opened one of my precious bottles of Blankiet 2001 Paradise Hills Cab. This is bound to be one of the next cult wines and I have a case of it! Mmmm, so damn good. And how much better will it be with a decade or two of cellaring? I hope I can wait long enough. I feel like a kid with a big bag of candy the morning after Halloween, knowing I will have to make it last...

[Fractal Trader]

Wine ping!

[quantim]

Click to be added or removed. (Over ninety members).

Wine news ping.

Meursault Charmes and Puligny-Montrachet

By LeFlaive?  Oh how I miss those days...