The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at the now-famous Paris Tasting in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result, sparking a golden age for viticulture that extends beyond France's hallowed borders -- to Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and across the globe.

Then Paris correspondent for Time magazine, George M. Taber recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on the three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. At a time when California was best known for cheap jug wine, these pioneers used radical new techniques alongside time-honored winemaking traditions to craft premium American wines that could stand up to France's finest.

With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks in captivating prose, bringing to life an eclectic cast and magnificent settings. For lovers of wine and anyone who enjoys a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old, this is an illuminating and deeply satisfying tale.

Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Told for the first time by the only reporter present, this is the true story of the legendary Paris Tasting of 1976 - a blind tasting where French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best - and its revolutionary impact on the world of wine.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In 1976, a Paris wine shop arranged a tasting as a gimmick to introduce some California wines; the judges, of course, were all French and militantly chauvinistic. Only one journalist bothered to attend, a Time correspondent, looking for a possible American angle. The story he got turned out to be a sensation. In both red and white blind tastings, an American wine won handily: a 1973 Stag's Leap cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay. When the story was published the following week, it stunned both the complacent French and fledgling American wine industries-and things have never been the same since. Taber, the Time man, has fashioned an entertaining, informative book around this event. Following a brisk history of the French-dominated European wine trade with a more detailed look at the less familiar American effort, he focuses on the two winning wineries, both of which provide him with lively tales of colorful amateurs and immigrants making good, partly through willingness to experiment with new techniques. While the outrage of some of the judges is funny, this is a serious business book, too, sure to be required reading for American vintners and oenophiles. Photos. Agent, Wendy Silbert. (Sept. 27) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

More has happened in the wine field in the past four decades than in the previous four centuries. The turning point in the growing, producing, and drinking of wine in California was an obscure blind tasting that took place in Paris on May 24, 1976. As the only journalist who bothered to cover the event, Taber has a distinctive take on the phenomenal growth of the wine industry. He covers much more than just the Paris tasting that judged California wines superior to France's best, chronicling the history of California wine production from its low-quality beginnings to today's huge industry. He also follows the life paths of the two California winemakers-Mike Grgich and Warren Winiarski-whose wines placed first in the 1976 Paris tasting, and he recounts the histories of the industry's chief personalities and their wineries. Elin McCoy's more engaging The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste deals with a similar time period in the wine industry; however, Taber's fact-laden book will appeal to California wine enthusiasts and others interested in the details of the 1976 Paris wine tasting. Recommended. (Index, illustrations, and maps not seen.)-Ann Weber, Bellarmine Coll. Prep. Lib., San Jose, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews