Recently Read: Judgment of Paris
Over a few flights and late nights I recently finished George Taber's Judgment of Paris, The Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine. It's a very well written book and quite frankly an incredible expansion (300 pages) of what was originally a one day, 2,000-word writing assignment for Taber, who was writing for Time Magazine at the time.
I didn't find the story line as compelling as House of Mondavi, but it's probably on a short list of must-reads for any hard-core wine enthusiast. The story line refers to a famous (or infamous, if you are from France) blind tasting of French and California wines hosted in Paris in 1976. At the time, French wines were considered the clas of the wine trade, and really the only world-class wines available commercially. A wine merchant named Steven Spurrier (I don't believe any relation to the football coach) had visited several of the emerging wines in Napa Valley the previous year and found several of them - including Stags Leap, Chateau Montelena and Heitz, to be outstanding and worthy of exposure to French enthusiasts.
He then set up a blind wine tasting by notable French judges - and the rest is history. Montelena went on to be voted the best of the white wines, and Stags Leap the best of the reds - both unheard of outcomes for the time period, given that California wines were mostly known as low-end jug wines at the time. Notably, today both the Montelena and Stags Leap web sites have links to info on the Paris tasting.
Taber does a great job of going into the history and personalities of these storied wineries, including their founding teams, winemakers and owners. The amazing stories behind Mike Grgich (winemaker at Mondavi, then Montelena and now owner of Grgich Hills) and Warren Winiarski (founder of Stags Leap) are particularly compelling.
Net/net if you are really into wine and wine history, this is a book worth reading. If you are simply looking for a good book with interesting plot lines and a bit of history on Napa Valley, House of Mondavi is an easier read.
The book does feature one of my favorite quotes on the subject of wine from no less than Benjamin Franklin, whose autobiography is at the top of my list of all time great reads:
"Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
