George Taber

I am writing a book on the cork taint problem and have been deep in the subject for six months. But that's a new one to me. If you find an answer, I'd love to talk with you off line about it. Might be interesting for my book..

There have been literally dozens and dozens of retastings modeled after the Paris Tasting. Steven Spurrier could make a career out of going to retastings around the world. In the early years they used exactly the same vintages, but in more recent years they have used more contemporary vintages. The results have varied all over the board. The most closely followed retastings were done at 10 years. After the original 1976 one the French had claimed that their wines were too young and that they would do a lot better later. So people waited to see if that was the case. Spurrier organized a retasting in New York in 1986. The tasting involved only the red wines because people thought the whites were probably over the hill. The results were very different, although a California wine came out on top---Clos du Val. Stag's Leap, the winner at Paris, had slipped. Overall the California wines actually did a little better in 1986 than in 1976. Also in 1986 the Wine Spectator magazine did a retesting. Heitz Martha's Vineyard won that. Earlier this year there was a retasting in Sao Paulo done by Spurrier. Stag's Leap won there. In late September in Manhattan there was a "modern" Paris Tasting that included all the original French wines, the winning California ones and some new California cult wines. Tht was done with modern vintages, including 2000 for all the French, which was a great year in France. Haut Brion won that one, with Stag's Leap a close second. The retasting reported in the New York Times last week was the only lopsided French victory that I can remember. Most of the retastings have been close, and my general unscientific impression is that the California wines have been slightly ahead. More retastings are planned. The Vintner's Club in San Francisco, which did a first retasting in 1978, is doing another next May for the 30th anniversay of the Paris event. It looks like a debate that fortunately will not be ending any time soon.

Sorry that I've been traveling a lot promoting my book Judgment of Paris for a couple of months and have been in limited email access. I'll try to be a better boy in the future. On the question raised by I think it's JohnL about the changed view of terroir, I think that the Paris tasting destroyed the French claim (but also supported by a lot of others in particular the Brits) that the only great terroir was in France. I think Paris opened the door to winemakers to look harder at their own terroirs and how to work them to their maximum to see what they could do. When they did that, better wine started being produced in a lot of areas. Just think of what's come out of Tuscany in the last quarter century. It might have all happened without Paris, but at a minimum the process was speeded up by Paris. The Paris Tasting showed very clearly that the esteemed French judges couldn't easily tell the difference between wines made in French terroir and northern California terroir. Thanks to those who have bought the book. Sales have been good, and it's into a fourth printing. If you have any other questions, let me know. I promise to answer more quickly in the future.

Ah, the nostalgia of it all... "The U.S. winners are little known to wine lovers, since they are in short supply even in California and rather expensive ($6 plus)." It seems to me that over the years Stag's Leap has garnered more publicity from winning this event with their cabernet than Chateau Montelena did with their chardonnay. Any idea as to why? Both grapes have gone through their marketing product life cycle of growth and maturity at different times and rates since this event, yet you can't write about Warren Winiarski [owner of Stag's Leap Wine Cellers] without mentioning the Judgement of Pairs. I seldom read the same when Chateau Montelena or even Mike Grgich [winemaker of the '73 Chateau Montelena chardonnay] is mentioned. ← Your impression is correct. Warren Winiarski of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars has gotten more publicity from the Paris Tasting than the others. That's mainly because he has promoted it more. His ads regularly mentions the Paris Tasting as does his website. He also donated money to the Smithsonian to do a project on the history of California wine. Part of that was an event held there to celebrate the 20th anniversary and to place the two winning bottles in the Smithsonian collection. Chateau Montelena from its rebirth in 1972 had a business plan to make a great Cabernet. The Chardonnay was only made to help with cash flow in the early years before the Cabernet was ready for market. So it won in Paris for its Chardonnay, but today it's better known for its Cabernet. It still makes a Burgundy-style Chardonnay that I think is very good, but its heart is with its Estate Cabernet. You're also right that Mike Grgich is the forgotten "winner" of the Paris Tasting. The press has always paid more attention to Barrett and Winiarski. The Napa Valley paper a few years ago did an exhaustive story about the Paris Tasting and didn't even mention Grgich. He's tried to correct that with some of his own events such as a big dinner in Napa for the 25th anniversary. He's also the driving force behind a 30th anniversary program set for next year. In my book I give Grgich equal billing with Barrett and Winiarski.

On the website judgmentofparisbook.com we're going to have my schedule of events when we get closer to publication (September 27), but I'll also post the full schedule, if that's okay. I'll be traveling from late September to late October.

I used to live in New Jersey, but moved to Rhode Island in late April. Real estate taxes got too much for me in retirement. But I will be back in New Jersey in October for some book events. Perhaps we could hook up then. I'll be in and around New Jersey from Octobr 20 to 24. I lived in Princeton, so I know the Lambertville-Flemington area well. What time and place would work for you?

George, when I receive my copy from Amazon, I will PM you for your address and send it to you with a return UPS label for your autograph. If that will work for you, perhaps others in the forum would like to follow suit. For those who are interested, as I am, in a little more information about George: Judgment of Paris And I see that Amazon now has a photo of the cover posted. Very cool cover. Was that your idea or the publisher's? This snippet from the Amazon blurb is intriguing. Can you tease us with some personal comments on your interactions with the California vintners? And what does it mean by a "business book"? ← That method for getting the autograph on the book is fine. Send me an email, and I'll send you my address. I see that you live in Paso Robles. Although I grew up in Riverside, my memory of California is fading, but I think that's in mid-state. I'm doing a book signing in Capitola at the Book Cafe on October 4 at 7:30. Is that far from you? Maybe we could hook up there. I'm doing some other book signings in the Napa and Sonoma valleys as well as in Southern California, but I think that Capitola would be closest to you. But, as I said, you proposal will work fine. As for the dust jacket, that idea came from the publisher. I liked it a lot. Not sure what they meant by "business book." I was a business journalist for about 30 years, so maybe that showed through in the book. The book tells in detail the history of the three main wineries and there's a lot of the trends in wine production and consumption around the world, but I wouldn't consider it a business book.

Rebel Rose: "Judgment of Paris" was the title of the original Time story. It was put on the story by an editor in New York, but since I studied Latin and Greek and school I always liked the classic connection and suggested it to the publisher. They surprised me by accepting it. Even if people don't know the story of Paris and Helen, the title still makes sense. If you do know the story, it has even more meaning. Thanks for buying the book. I'd love to autograph it. I don't know how to work out the logistics. Let me try to figure that out.

Brad: Bear with me if I'm not getting the answer to you correctly. I'm still a novice at these online chats. To answer your questions from the top: I have had an interest in wine for many years. I grew up in California in the 1950s before there was much of a Napa Valley, but I had some local pride. I lived in Europe for a long time both as a student and journalist, which increased my interest in wine. The main reason I ended up that day at the tasting was that I had taken the introductory course at the Académie du Vin in Paris, a wine school run by Steven Spurrier, who staged the event. They were looking for press coverage and asked me to attend. So I went, never expecting that California wines would come out on top in both the red and white categories. Since I started working on the book five years ago, I have become a more serious student. I took the week-long wine course at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley and have tried a lot. I still don't consider myself an expert, but a serious amateur. I have wine with dinner every night. As far as my tastes, I think one of the great things about wine is that you never run out of new wines to try. In addition to French and California wines, I'm a big fan of Chile, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Portugal. My knowledge of Italian wine is weak, but I hope to correct that weakness soon. Good California wine at least is now available in Europe, which is a big change from the years I was living there. And in Britain at least is very popular. A couple of years ago, Australia passed France as the number one wine in Britain. California is now pressing France to move into the number two slot. A lot of that wine is Gallo Sonoma County, but more expensive wines like Stag's Leap and Mondavi also have a small but loyal following.

I'm George Taber, the author of Judgment of Paris, and I'm going to be joining this electronic discussion. I don't mean to intimidate the free exchange of opinion, but I thought I might be able to answer some questions about the event and/or the book and contribute to the discussion. One question came up in an earlier message about the vintages of the various wines at the tasting. There were six California wines and four French wines in both the Chardonnay and Cabernet tastings. The California Chardonnays were 1972, 1973 and 1974. Four were from 1973 and one from 1972 and 1974. The winning Chateau Montelena was 1973. The four French Chardonnays were three 1973 and one 1972. The California Cabernets were split between 1969 and 1973. There was one 1969, one 1970, two 1971, one 1972 and one 1973. The winning Stag's Leap Wine Cellars was a 1973. The four French Cabernets were three 1970 and one 1971. The 1970 vintage in Bordeaux is still listed as "outstanding." If you have any questions, you can post them here. I'll be checking this regularly or send them directly to me at gmtaber@verizon.net