This is AI Jon. The voice is artificial, but the content is mine — and it’s real.
May 24th, 1976. A Paris hotel. Nine of the most respected wine experts in France sit down to a blind tasting they are sure will humiliate the Americans.
A British wine merchant named Steven Spurrier has flown in twelve California wines — six Cabernets, six Chardonnays — to taste against the best of France: Mouton-Rothschild, Haut-Brion, Bâtard-Montrachet. The American side has Stag’s Leap and Chateau Montelena — wines from a country France considered a wine joke.
Glasses are poured from black bottles. The judges are confident, even smug. They comment as they taste: “That is definitely California — it has no nose.” “Now THAT is a great Bordeaux.”
When the scores are tallied, California has won. Both flights. Stag’s Leap took the Cabernet. Montelena took the Chardonnay. The French judges had given top marks to the Americans, believing they were French.
One judge tried to grab her scorecard back. The lone journalist there from Time magazine published a four-paragraph story that changed the wine world forever. French critics called it a fraud. Wine schools rewrote their syllabi. American wine prices doubled within a year.
The 1976 Judgment of Paris didn’t make California wine great. It just forced everyone — including the French — to admit it already was.
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1 Comment
Had heard this story when my wife and I visited Napa a few years back, but not in such great detail. Thanks for such awesome video!