It has been 50 years since Steven Spurrier’s Judgment of Paris, the blind tasting that pitted California wines against France’s most prestigious estates and forever changed the wine world.
The tasting, held on May 24, 1976, was never intended to become a historic event. Spurrier and his American business partner Patricia Gallagher simply wanted to introduce California wines to some of France’s leading wine figures. At the last minute, however, Spurrier decided to make the tasting blind and to include top French wines for comparison.
As Spurrier later recalled, “All Patricia Gallagher and I were after was recognition of quality from California. My last-minute decision to include top French wines in a blind comparison was to avoid the California wines being ‘damned with faint praise.’ The tasting simply happened as it did; the only surprising thing was the result.”
He also noted that two factors transformed what should have been a modest event into an international sensation: the decision to make the tasting blind and the presence of George Taber of Time magazine, the only journalist in attendance. Taber’s subsequent article brought the story to a worldwide audience.
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Gallagher deserves more credit than she is often given. It was she who first proposed the idea of pitting the wines of one country against another. Timed to coincide with America’s bicentennial celebrations, the tasting brought unprecedented attention and credibility to California wine.
Not everyone welcomed the result. When California wines finished first in both the red and white categories, several members of the French panel reacted badly. Odette Kahn, editor of La Revue du Vin de France, was reportedly so upset that she demanded her scorecard back. Such are the hazards of blind tasting.
Today, however, it is important to remember that the wines tasted in Paris in 1976 were products of a very different era. Climate change, advances in viticulture and winemaking, and the enormous investment that has flowed into both Bordeaux and California have transformed the wines of both regions. In many respects, they are almost unrecognizable compared to their counterparts from the 1970s.
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The 25th-anniversary tasting
By 2001, there had already been several attempts to recreate the Judgment of Paris. Some used more contemporary vintages, while others, like mine, focused on wines from roughly the same era as the originals.
I assembled a panel of 16 tasters: eight wine professionals, including two Bordeaux winemakers and a Bordeaux négociant, and eight enthusiastic amateurs. The lineup included Bordeaux legends such as 1970 Petrus, 1970 Latour, and 1975 La Mission Haut-Brion, alongside California classics including 1974 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard, 1977 Phelps Eisele, and 1971 Ridge Monte Bello.
Just before the tasting, disaster struck. While packing the wines, I accidentally dropped a bottle of 1974 Mondavi Reserve. Searching for a replacement, I reached for the only other California Cabernet I had available from the decade—1970 Gemello, a wine that had cost me roughly $5.
To everyone’s astonishment, it not only won the tasting but received 15 of the 16 first-place votes.
One of the tasters, wine writer John Gilman, remains convinced that the sommelier somehow switched the bottles and that the wine was actually the La Mission Haut-Brion 1975. Yet when we examined the label, we discovered that the wine had been aged in redwood and carried the recommendation that it be consumed within seven years.
The vineyard itself has long since disappeared, replaced by Silicon Valley development. For Mario Gemello, however, the tasting became one of the proudest moments of his life. During his final illness, he reportedly reread articles about the event again and again.
The 50th-anniversary tasting
The 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris also marked the 25th anniversary of my own 2001 recreation. This time, rather than restricting the wines to the 1970s, I broadened the field to include vintages from 1970 through 1991.
There were good reasons for doing so. While California enjoyed a particularly strong run during the 1970s, Bordeaux was more uneven. Including some of the outstanding vintages of the 1980s allowed for a more nuanced comparison and better reflected the strengths of both regions.
On a cold February afternoon, a group of 14 tasters gathered at a local steakhouse to revisit one of the wine world’s most famous contests. The wines were served blind in flights of three. The participants knew the lineup but not the order in which the wines would appear.
Unlike the 2001 tasting, where professionals and amateurs were evenly represented, this group was composed primarily of experienced enthusiasts, with only two wine professionals among them. To eliminate any possibility of confusion, a sommelier oversaw the service and bottle handling throughout.
The results
I have included both my own rankings and the average rankings of the group (see table opposite). While there were some differences—particularly regarding the top wine—the overall conclusion was remarkably consistent: Bordeaux emerged as the clear winner.
At first glance, that result might appear fairly predictable. Many of the Bordeaux wines came from the exceptional vintages of the 1980s, while most of the California wines were drawn from the celebrated 1970s. Yet the outcome also reflected a broader reality. Bordeaux’s greatest wines seem to have benefited enormously from additional maturity, while many of California’s pioneering Cabernets, magnificent though they remain, have already passed through their peak drinking windows.
What struck me most, however, was not who won but how well the wines performed. Aside from a corked Philip Togni 1985, every bottle showed beautifully. None seemed tired or excessively old. Scores ranged from 90 points to a perfect 100 for the 1982 Mouton Rothschild—a testament to the longevity of great Cabernet-based wines on both sides of the Atlantic.
My biggest disappointment was 1974 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard. It was still a very fine wine, but the unmistakable eucalyptus note that has always defined the vineyard was absent—or perhaps simply hidden by the blind format.
The biggest surprise, and certainly my greatest pleasure, was the performance of the 1970 Gemello. A quarter-century after shocking the field in Manhattan, it once again finished near the top, placing third in both my rankings and those of the group.
Some wines are memorable because of their pedigree. Others because of their rarity. Gemello occupies a different category altogether. It reminds us that wine can still surprise us, even after decades of tasting and study.
Reflections on 50 years
The original Judgment of Paris was widely portrayed as a battle between the Old World and the New. In 1976, that narrative made sense. California was the challenger, Bordeaux the established champion. Fifty years later, the distinction feels less important. The wines of both regions have evolved dramatically. Climate change has altered growing conditions. Modern viticulture and winemaking have changed styles. Investment has transformed vineyards, wineries, and expectations. Today’s Bordeaux and Napa Valley bear only a passing resemblance to the wines that Spurrier assembled in Paris in 1976.
What remains unchanged is the lesson that blind tasting teaches again and again: prestige, price, and origin matter less than what is actually in the glass and the particular bottle it comes from. A $5 wine from an obscure winery can still beat wines of far greater cost and repute. That was the surprise in Paris in 1976. It was the surprise in Manhattan in 2001. And to a lesser extent, it was still the surprise in 2026.
Fifty years on, the Judgment of Paris remains important historically, signaling an end to the perceived hegemony of the French and demonstrating that California is capable of making world-class wines. But it also reminded the wine world that greatness can emerge from unexpected places—and that every bottle deserves to be judged on its own merits.
Golodetz and group rankings
- 1982 Mouton Rothschild / Group 5
- 1975 Phelps Eisele / Group 4
- 1970 Gemello / Group 3
- 1982 Château Latour / Group 2
- 1989 Château Petrus / Group 1
- 1989 Château Haut-Brion / Group 11
- 1990 Château Lafite / Group 6
- 1985 Château Cheval Blanc / Group 8
- 1978 Diamond Creek Red Rock Vineyard / Group 12
- 1982 Château Pichon Lalande / Group 7
- 1991 Ridge Monte Bello / Group 9
- 1974 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard / Group 13
- 1974 Mayacamas / Group 10
- 1975 La Mission Haut-Brion / Group 14
- 1978 Phelps Insignia / Group 15
- 1985 Philip Togni / flawed
