Episode 67 of The Best 5 Minute Wine Podcast delves into the 1976 Paris Tasting, a pivotal moment in wine history that pitted French wines against their American counterparts. Host Forrest Kelly recounts how an Englishman named Stephen Spurrier orchestrated this unprecedented event, leading to unexpected outcomes that would change the perception of wine globally.
As Forrest shares the fascinating details of the tasting, listeners will learn how the judges—believing they were sampling the finest French wines—were astonished to find that California wines outshone their expectations. This episode not only highlights the significance of the tasting but also introduces the cultural shifts it sparked in the wine industry, culminating in a lasting legacy that redefined quality wine production around the world.
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Every bottle has a front label.
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That's the story they want you to know.
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The back label is the story they didn't.
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This is the back label.
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A story that gives you the full pour.
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America is throwing itself a party.
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200 years old and feeling good.
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Fireworks, parades, and somewhere in a Paris hotel,
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Nine of France's most respected wine experts have gathered around a table.
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Critics, sommeliers, winemakers,
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the kind of people who could blind taste a burgundy
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and tell you which side of the hill the grapes grew on.
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The man who assembled them was an Englishman named Stephen Spurrier.
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He ran a little wine shop in Paris.
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He also ran a wine school,
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the first independent wine school in all of France.
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He was well-liked, well-respected.
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And on this particular afternoon,
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he was about to make some very powerful enemies.
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The idea was simple.
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A friendly comparison of French and American wines
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in honor of the U.S. Bicentennial.
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His colleague, Patricia Gallagher, had suggested it.
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She'd been to Napa.
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She'd tasted the wines.
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She believed in them.
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But here's what nobody told you.
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Spurrier had traveled to California that spring
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and hand-picked the bottles himself
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without ever telling the wineries
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their wine was going to be in a competition.
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The winemakers back in Napa had no idea what was about to happen.
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And getting the bottles to Paris?
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Things were a little more archaic than in flying.
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Patricia had to convince a TWA official
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to let her carry three cases onto the plane.
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Far more than the two-bottle limit.
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She got help from her fellow passengers.
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She tucked it into their luggage.
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The glasses were poured.
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The labels were hidden.
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The judges went to work.
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Now, everyone in that room expected the same outcome.
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The French wines would dazzle.
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The Americans would show well enough.
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A polite result for a polite occasion.
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During the tasting,
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several French judges reportedly assumed
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certain California wines were French.
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They scored them highly.
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When Spurrier announced the white wine results,
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the room went quiet.
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California Chardonnay from Chateau Monteleone,
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had just beaten the most prestigious wine burgundies in France.
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And then came the Reds.
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demanded her ballot back.
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She understood immediately what had happened and what it meant.
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The 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley,
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had just scored higher than Chateau Moton Rothschild
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and Chateau Haute Brion.
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they almost ignored the story entirely.
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Spurrier was banned from France's prestigious wine tasting tour for a year,
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apparently as punishment.
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The one reporter in the room,
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a young time magazine writer,
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It ran buried on page 85 next to an ad for Armstrong tires.
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Nobody thought it mattered.
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But here's the rest of the story.
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the same wines were tasted again.
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The French had been saying all along that California wines couldn't age.
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The time would prove them right.
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the top five wines were all
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the winemaker behind Stag's Leap,
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eventually sold his property for $185 million.
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went on to found his Napa Winery
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and the quiet little wine school in Paris that had started it all.
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It changed how the entire world thinks about where great wine can come from.
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Nine French judges sat down to confirm what everyone already knew.
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They ended up proving
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exactly the opposite.
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The movie Bottleshock really brings home this story.
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If you haven't seen it, put it on your to-do list.
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the back label story.
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