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[(Judgment of Paris: California Vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine)] [by: George M Taber]
The Paris Tasting of 1976 will forever be remembered as the landmark event that transformed the wine industry. At this legendary contest -- a blind tasting -- a panel of top French wine experts shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best. George M. Taber, the only reporter present, recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on three gifted unknowns behind the winning a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks -- repositioning the industry and sparking a golden age for viticulture across the globe. With an eclectic cast of characters and magnificent settings, Judgment of Paris is an illuminating tale and a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old.
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First published January 1, 2005
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August 31, 2008
The actual May 1976 blind tasting in Paris of French & California wines takes up little of this book- which makes sense given that is was very low-key event. Spurrier meant to introduce what he thought were intriguing wines (Californians) to a handful of notable French palates. The blind tasting was meant to be a bit of a tease, a lark. He had no idea his 2 hr tasting would unleash a revolution in the wine industry.
What I loved about this book were the stories of young men who arrived from all corners of the earth to the forests & fields of Napa and Sonoma, united by a love for wine and terroir. Most had scant experience as winemakers and viticulturalists; within a few years they were creating wines that could make your toes curl in delight. Luck had little to do with their success- they recognized the possibilities in the earth, climate and weather of Napa/Sonoma and mortgaged their careers, livelihoods and families' futures to pursue their passion.
Thank you to Taber for his succinct and rational criticism of the Robert Parker influence on wine styles- that turned finesse and restraint into fruit bombs and velvet cloaks. That tide is now turning as winemakers of quality are once again letting the fruit speak for itself.
I think there is no passion in agriculture like that of the vine. This book is a celebration of that craft and an intriguing insight into an industry rich with tradition and replete with innovation.
What I loved about this book were the stories of young men who arrived from all corners of the earth to the forests & fields of Napa and Sonoma, united by a love for wine and terroir. Most had scant experience as winemakers and viticulturalists; within a few years they were creating wines that could make your toes curl in delight. Luck had little to do with their success- they recognized the possibilities in the earth, climate and weather of Napa/Sonoma and mortgaged their careers, livelihoods and families' futures to pursue their passion.
Thank you to Taber for his succinct and rational criticism of the Robert Parker influence on wine styles- that turned finesse and restraint into fruit bombs and velvet cloaks. That tide is now turning as winemakers of quality are once again letting the fruit speak for itself.
I think there is no passion in agriculture like that of the vine. This book is a celebration of that craft and an intriguing insight into an industry rich with tradition and replete with innovation.
October 12, 2025
At the heart of this groundbreaking book Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine is the recounting of the events of this seminal event by the only reporter present from Time, reporter George M. Taber. The Paris Tasting of 1976 will be forever remembered as the landmark event that transformed the wine industry, as Taber introduces us to the eccentric American winemakers focusing on three gifted but unknown in the industry: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Croatian immigrant. This is the story of Jim Barrett, Warren Winiarski, and Mike Grgich as they shared their experiences and their lives and their adventures in the wine industry.
The Paris Tasting of 1976 will forever be remembered as the landmark event that transformed and shocked the wine industry. In this legendary contest, a blind tasting, a panel of top French wine experts shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France’s best wines. In the category of Chardonnay, the winning wine was Chateau Montelena, 1973 and in the Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine selected as the best was Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, 1973. Being the only reporter present, George M. Taber relates this historic event as well as the aftershocks, repositioning the wine industry into what has been termed the golden age for viticulture. At its heart, this is the story of the entrepreneurial spirit and how transformative it may be.
The Paris Tasting of 1976 will forever be remembered as the landmark event that transformed and shocked the wine industry. In this legendary contest, a blind tasting, a panel of top French wine experts shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France’s best wines. In the category of Chardonnay, the winning wine was Chateau Montelena, 1973 and in the Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine selected as the best was Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, 1973. Being the only reporter present, George M. Taber relates this historic event as well as the aftershocks, repositioning the wine industry into what has been termed the golden age for viticulture. At its heart, this is the story of the entrepreneurial spirit and how transformative it may be.
If we sip the wine, we find dreams coming upon us out of the imminent night. —- D.H. LAWRENCE
Wine is sure proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. —- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
God made only water, but man made wine. —- VICTOR HUGO
A glass of wine is a great refreshment after a hard day’s work. —- LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history. —- CLIFTON FADIMAN
A bottle of good wine, like a good act, shines ever in the retrospect. —- ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Wine is sunlight, held together by water. —- GALILEO
January 12, 2015
The Napa Valley is one of the most important wine regions in the world, and it's true that the wine is bottled poetry. But back before it had enough street cred that convinced suckers like me to spend $40 for a few measly 2-ounce pours, it had to convince the French that California could make more than cloying sweet wines and jugs of wine made with the vile but prolific Alicante Bouschet grape (side note: I've only grape as a low percentage blender in Ridge wines, but I really want to try it in larger amounts as it seems like a weird grape, and I like weird).
Taber doesn't shy away from talking about the more technical aspects of wine-making, which makes me happy: I geek out a lot about malolactic fermentation, and I find taking into account degrees of Brix unrelenting fascinating. If you don't know what those words mean, then stuff is going to go over your head. So here's a tasting primer, materials for which you can get at Trader Joe's for approximately $40.
Malolactic fermentation: grab an apple, some butter, a baguette, a bottle of Jadot Macon Villages Chardonnay (a French unbaked Chardonnay; you can go to a proper wine shop and get Chablis if you're a baller) and a bottle of Smoking Loon Chardonnay (heavily oaked from California; ballers will want to buy Rombauer, which is a lovely vineyard to visit, especially in fall). Malolactic fermentation changes the flavor and mouthfeel of the wine tremendously. Thus, even philistines should have no trouble learning how to taste for it! During malolactic fermentation, the malic acid, which tastes like apples, converts to lactic acid, which is present in dairy. So, have a bite of the apple, cleanse your palette with the bread, and then taste the Macon Villages for apples. Cool. Now take a tiny little bit of butter and eat it. Yum, butter. Once again, cleanse your palette with bread and then taste the Smoking Loon for butter. You'll notice that the Smoking Loon feels heavier in your mouth (more like whole milk than skim milk), which is a side effect of ML.
Brix: Grape juice turns boozy when the sugars in the juice are converted into alcohol during primary fermentation. This means that the amount of sugar in the juice is going to constrain the amount of alcohol in the wine: when all the sugar converts to alcohol, creating a dry wine, that's pretty much as alcoholic as it's gonna get (unless you fortify it with more booze, like the lovely people in Porto). A winemaker is going to make some important decisions based on the sugar level in the wine, so it's important to be able to measure it. Degrees of Brix is the measure they use. As the grapes ripen on the vine, they get more sugary, so picking later means more sugar, while picking early means less. But measurement doesn't stop at harvest: winemakers also measure the sugars to see how the conversion of sugar to alcohol is doing. Sometimes it gets stuck on the way to dryness, sometimes the goal is not to let all the sugars convert to begin with. Measuring lets the winemaker know what's what.
To understand this while drinking a bunch of wine, go to the Riesling section of where you buy wine. Find a bottle that says "dry Riesling" and a bottle that says "sweet Riesling." Try to stick to Rieslings from the same geographic area, so that the critical difference is the sweetness. Look for Pacific Rim or Chateau Ste. Michelle: both produce sweet and dry Rieslings, plus they're widely available, inexpensive, and they don't suck. Check the label: the alcohol percentage should be higher on the dry Riesling than the sweet Riesling. Drink 'em, noting the difference. The dry Riesling will still be fruity, so don't confuse that with sugar. Think of the difference between fresh fruit and jam, which I find to be a useful guide for dissociating the sweet and fruit.
Also, buy some Chinese food; Riesling is very food friendly, and sweet Riesling with spicy Chinese is a classic pairing.
Anyway, The Judgement of Paris isn’t going to be too new for oenophiles, but it’s pretty cool to get biographies of the major players, and information about their winemaking. Those who aren’t wine geeks might not find it as enjoyable as I did: it’s very wine-focused, even when Taber ostensibly discusses culture. Of course, for me the wine-focus is half the fun.
Now, if you excuse me, I have some Alicante Bouschet to track down.
Taber doesn't shy away from talking about the more technical aspects of wine-making, which makes me happy: I geek out a lot about malolactic fermentation, and I find taking into account degrees of Brix unrelenting fascinating. If you don't know what those words mean, then stuff is going to go over your head. So here's a tasting primer, materials for which you can get at Trader Joe's for approximately $40.
Malolactic fermentation: grab an apple, some butter, a baguette, a bottle of Jadot Macon Villages Chardonnay (a French unbaked Chardonnay; you can go to a proper wine shop and get Chablis if you're a baller) and a bottle of Smoking Loon Chardonnay (heavily oaked from California; ballers will want to buy Rombauer, which is a lovely vineyard to visit, especially in fall). Malolactic fermentation changes the flavor and mouthfeel of the wine tremendously. Thus, even philistines should have no trouble learning how to taste for it! During malolactic fermentation, the malic acid, which tastes like apples, converts to lactic acid, which is present in dairy. So, have a bite of the apple, cleanse your palette with the bread, and then taste the Macon Villages for apples. Cool. Now take a tiny little bit of butter and eat it. Yum, butter. Once again, cleanse your palette with bread and then taste the Smoking Loon for butter. You'll notice that the Smoking Loon feels heavier in your mouth (more like whole milk than skim milk), which is a side effect of ML.
Brix: Grape juice turns boozy when the sugars in the juice are converted into alcohol during primary fermentation. This means that the amount of sugar in the juice is going to constrain the amount of alcohol in the wine: when all the sugar converts to alcohol, creating a dry wine, that's pretty much as alcoholic as it's gonna get (unless you fortify it with more booze, like the lovely people in Porto). A winemaker is going to make some important decisions based on the sugar level in the wine, so it's important to be able to measure it. Degrees of Brix is the measure they use. As the grapes ripen on the vine, they get more sugary, so picking later means more sugar, while picking early means less. But measurement doesn't stop at harvest: winemakers also measure the sugars to see how the conversion of sugar to alcohol is doing. Sometimes it gets stuck on the way to dryness, sometimes the goal is not to let all the sugars convert to begin with. Measuring lets the winemaker know what's what.
To understand this while drinking a bunch of wine, go to the Riesling section of where you buy wine. Find a bottle that says "dry Riesling" and a bottle that says "sweet Riesling." Try to stick to Rieslings from the same geographic area, so that the critical difference is the sweetness. Look for Pacific Rim or Chateau Ste. Michelle: both produce sweet and dry Rieslings, plus they're widely available, inexpensive, and they don't suck. Check the label: the alcohol percentage should be higher on the dry Riesling than the sweet Riesling. Drink 'em, noting the difference. The dry Riesling will still be fruity, so don't confuse that with sugar. Think of the difference between fresh fruit and jam, which I find to be a useful guide for dissociating the sweet and fruit.
Also, buy some Chinese food; Riesling is very food friendly, and sweet Riesling with spicy Chinese is a classic pairing.
Anyway, The Judgement of Paris isn’t going to be too new for oenophiles, but it’s pretty cool to get biographies of the major players, and information about their winemaking. Those who aren’t wine geeks might not find it as enjoyable as I did: it’s very wine-focused, even when Taber ostensibly discusses culture. Of course, for me the wine-focus is half the fun.
Now, if you excuse me, I have some Alicante Bouschet to track down.
June 22, 2009
You have to read this book in Sips not Gulps! Also helps if you are interested in wine, wineries, and wine making. The book came out in 2005, but is mostly about the revolution of wine making in the mid 1970's. We visited my husband's brother in Napa California in 1978(?) and visted the Mondavi, Sterling, Beringer and Christian Brothers wineries (amongst others). This really makes the book interesting to me.
Some interesting (to me) asides:
(circa 1968), Dr. Gerald Ivancie, a Denver peridontal surgeon who loved wine and had come up with the idea of buyng Napa Valley grapes and fermenting them in Denver, bought Gamay and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the valley and had them shipped them to Denver, where they were made into wines that were sold as Ivancie Beajolais or Ivancie Cabernet Sauvignon.
In 2002, Foster's a leading Australian beer company, took over Napa Valley's Beringer Wine Estates.
Addendum from my cousin David who worked with Ivancie the 1960's (or 70's):
Yes, I've read The Judgment of Paris, and I did work for Ivancie Wines. Warren Winiarski was our consultant and friend. He actually brought the cuttings we planted in western Colorado in a U-haul. (It is an industry that is still going strong.) Warren was Norma's and my dinner guest in our apartment in Denver in the early 70's.
Two different Stag's Leap wineries. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, the winery that triumphed in the Paris competition, and Stag's Leap Winery, now owned by Australia's Foster's Group.
Some interesting (to me) asides:
(circa 1968), Dr. Gerald Ivancie, a Denver peridontal surgeon who loved wine and had come up with the idea of buyng Napa Valley grapes and fermenting them in Denver, bought Gamay and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the valley and had them shipped them to Denver, where they were made into wines that were sold as Ivancie Beajolais or Ivancie Cabernet Sauvignon.
In 2002, Foster's a leading Australian beer company, took over Napa Valley's Beringer Wine Estates.
Addendum from my cousin David who worked with Ivancie the 1960's (or 70's):
Yes, I've read The Judgment of Paris, and I did work for Ivancie Wines. Warren Winiarski was our consultant and friend. He actually brought the cuttings we planted in western Colorado in a U-haul. (It is an industry that is still going strong.) Warren was Norma's and my dinner guest in our apartment in Denver in the early 70's.
Two different Stag's Leap wineries. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, the winery that triumphed in the Paris competition, and Stag's Leap Winery, now owned by Australia's Foster's Group.
April 9, 2022
There's a good story here, but the author didn't find it. This book needed a strong editor to better shape the narrative. The success of non-French wines is engrossing, and I love the upstart hippish Californians who muddle their way to creating a great product. Or the pleasure these upstarts enjoyed by sticking it to the snobby French wine tasters. The French wine world (at that time) seems populated by hide-bound class-conscious individuals. It's great to know how many great places create their own great wine: New Zealand, and Africa, among others.
March 3, 2012
This book is really three books interwoven into one.
The first part, and the reason I decided to read the book, is about the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting. I saw the movie "Bottle Shock" and thought that it would be fun to read book upon which it was based. (Be forewarned, the movie took a lot of liberties with the story and the similarities are few.) This part of the book is highly engrossing. It's hard to believe that a wine tasting covered by a single journalist (George Taber from Time Magazine) had such an impact on the entire industry.
The second part of the book contains the stories of important vineyards and the individuals who either founded them or took over the helm. These stories are interesting and provide the reader with a sense of what it was like to start a winery in Napa or Sonoma during the 60's and 70's. My complaint with these sections is that after a while I lost track of who was who and stopped reading the stories carefully. Nevertheless, Taber paints a rather engaging picture of what it must have been like to be on the forefront of the wine industry in California. Additionally, I gained a new respect for UC Davis and its impact on viticulture and wine-making in the Napa Region.
The third part of the book deals with the wine industry itself. It is here where the link to the 1976 tasting become clear. The impact on the French wine producers was and continues to be significant and has necessitated that they rethink many of their laws and approaches to not only making wine but branding and marketing it. The tasting also set the scene for the globalization of wine. After all, if California wines could outshine the French wines, why couldn't a wine from Australia or South Africa do the same? This single event was likely the catalyst for a myriad of shifts for the industry as a whole.
I gave the book 3 stars mostly because I felt the book could have been more tightly written and edited. Regardless, if you are at all interested in wine (or drink it often) it's a worthwhile read.
The first part, and the reason I decided to read the book, is about the 1976 Paris Wine Tasting. I saw the movie "Bottle Shock" and thought that it would be fun to read book upon which it was based. (Be forewarned, the movie took a lot of liberties with the story and the similarities are few.) This part of the book is highly engrossing. It's hard to believe that a wine tasting covered by a single journalist (George Taber from Time Magazine) had such an impact on the entire industry.
The second part of the book contains the stories of important vineyards and the individuals who either founded them or took over the helm. These stories are interesting and provide the reader with a sense of what it was like to start a winery in Napa or Sonoma during the 60's and 70's. My complaint with these sections is that after a while I lost track of who was who and stopped reading the stories carefully. Nevertheless, Taber paints a rather engaging picture of what it must have been like to be on the forefront of the wine industry in California. Additionally, I gained a new respect for UC Davis and its impact on viticulture and wine-making in the Napa Region.
The third part of the book deals with the wine industry itself. It is here where the link to the 1976 tasting become clear. The impact on the French wine producers was and continues to be significant and has necessitated that they rethink many of their laws and approaches to not only making wine but branding and marketing it. The tasting also set the scene for the globalization of wine. After all, if California wines could outshine the French wines, why couldn't a wine from Australia or South Africa do the same? This single event was likely the catalyst for a myriad of shifts for the industry as a whole.
I gave the book 3 stars mostly because I felt the book could have been more tightly written and edited. Regardless, if you are at all interested in wine (or drink it often) it's a worthwhile read.
May 16, 2017
Well, I tend to enjoy any book wine related, as the topic is one of the passions of my life, and further I'm pretty familiar with the tasting, back story and history. While all of the seemingly, and very loosely related information presented was interesting, I still couldn't help be frustrated by that fact that approximately only 17.2% of the book actually seemed related to the Paris tasting! Also lots of time spent on rudimentary basics on how wine is made - again, nothing wrong with that, just that it was written for a very novice audience. Also I really wish the speaker (audio book) would ask someone, if he's not sure how to pronounce words! But all in all, a fun book.
September 30, 2011
George Taber has proved that he has an extensive knowledge about wine and its history. However, this extremely detailed info dump is only really necessary unless you are preparing to answer jeopardy questions about the topic. I recommend the "Accidental Connoisseur" by Lawrence Osbourne instead if you want an enjoyable book about wine and don't want to learn everything about it.
August 2, 2025
I loved seeing how people of so many different backgrounds, generally with little experience in winemaking, found support and success in Napa. I would’ve loved to hear more about what women were doing behind the scenes - certainly these wives didn’t only raise kids. There were passing mentions of female wine making assistants - I’d love to know more about their stories, too. But perhaps that is another book. It was a wonderful read - highly recommend.
October 16, 2012
So I picked this up thinking it would be dry and boring and put me to sleep, but what a pleasant surprise. Actually a revelation! I got to 100 pages without sleeping before I got too tired to continue and even then I didn't want to put it down.
I could have never imagined that a book on wine could be so enjoyable but what makes the difference I think is that Taber tells a story about people instead of the product, and what happens is that you become very involved in these peoples' quest to make good wine. It's a story about their passion for great wine and you truly get to understand how much of a labour of love it had to have been for them to persist in this endeavour. It's humorous and touching and even with all the historical tidbits not at all very difficult to digest.
Another point of interest, although the book was published in 2005 and I'm reading it seven years later, it still maintains its relevance, particularly in part four, when he discusses developments in the international wine trade, and burgeoning wine markets in Chile, Australia etc. I went off and found out updates on my own, checked out the websites he mentioned which are still up!
And finally, although I'm not too interested in the nitty gritty of wines (buttery?, supple? what!? lol), I know what I like and Taber made me want to go check all the wines I have for origin and year and check those reviews for their buttery-ness etc. and mostly to go drink some wine!
I really liked this book! What a wonderful surprise :-)
I could have never imagined that a book on wine could be so enjoyable but what makes the difference I think is that Taber tells a story about people instead of the product, and what happens is that you become very involved in these peoples' quest to make good wine. It's a story about their passion for great wine and you truly get to understand how much of a labour of love it had to have been for them to persist in this endeavour. It's humorous and touching and even with all the historical tidbits not at all very difficult to digest.
Another point of interest, although the book was published in 2005 and I'm reading it seven years later, it still maintains its relevance, particularly in part four, when he discusses developments in the international wine trade, and burgeoning wine markets in Chile, Australia etc. I went off and found out updates on my own, checked out the websites he mentioned which are still up!
And finally, although I'm not too interested in the nitty gritty of wines (buttery?, supple? what!? lol), I know what I like and Taber made me want to go check all the wines I have for origin and year and check those reviews for their buttery-ness etc. and mostly to go drink some wine!
I really liked this book! What a wonderful surprise :-)
September 6, 2012
In 1976, a Paris-based British wine merchant Steven Spurrier organized a blind tasting of California and French wines in honor of the American bicentennial. Since his motive was publicity for his wine shop, he was disappointed when only one journalist, George Taber of "Time," accepted his invitation to attend. Although the judges were all French, an American red and white both won - a 1973 Stag's Leap Cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay - and Taber had a story that turned into a sensation.
I very much enjoyed the fictional version of this story told in the movie "Bottle Shock." However, the true story is even more intriguing. The shocking results turned out to be a historical turning point in international wine-making. A generation later Taber felt that so many myths have grown up around the event that it was time to record the true story. In the process, he has preserved many fascinating details of the early history of wine-making in the Napa Valley. The book plays homage to the contributions of many of the characters in this history including the generosity of Robert Mondavi and the passion for wine-making of Mike Grgich. The story ends with a survey of the contemporary state of international wine-making, including a portrait of six out-of-the-mainstream locales where wine-making traditions from France and California have been synthesized with local advantages to produce exceptional wines. They have all made it to my list of must-visit places.
I very much enjoyed the fictional version of this story told in the movie "Bottle Shock." However, the true story is even more intriguing. The shocking results turned out to be a historical turning point in international wine-making. A generation later Taber felt that so many myths have grown up around the event that it was time to record the true story. In the process, he has preserved many fascinating details of the early history of wine-making in the Napa Valley. The book plays homage to the contributions of many of the characters in this history including the generosity of Robert Mondavi and the passion for wine-making of Mike Grgich. The story ends with a survey of the contemporary state of international wine-making, including a portrait of six out-of-the-mainstream locales where wine-making traditions from France and California have been synthesized with local advantages to produce exceptional wines. They have all made it to my list of must-visit places.
May 8, 2020
This is one of my favorite books. If you are an oenophile or just someone who enjoys learning about wine and visiting Napa, this will give you so much more appreciation for the region and the sweat equity the winemakers and vintners put into their craft. The 1976 event created by Steven Spurrier transformed Napa and the way wine snobs once perceived it. So many stories behind the stories. Had George Taber not attended the event (he was the only journalist who did and his story appeared a few weeks later in Time magazine), who knows how Napa might look today.
April 3, 2015
More of an info dump about the step-by-step process of making wine...over and over again, repeated with each winery Taber brings up. Tedious and ultimately boring. For the hardcore only, otherwise you're going to need a couple bottles of wine just to make it to the end.
September 18, 2019
A casual afternoon in 1976 billed as “Let’s try some California wines” turned into the grape stomp heard round the world, changing forever the dominance of Europe in the wine department. This is an excellent, comprehensive book, written by the only reporter at the event, covers every imaginable angle of the wines and participants in the wine tasting, later dubbed “Judgement in Paris”: the French and Californian wines tasted, and their histories, the major human players, and the results that were still being felt decades later.
George Tabor, Time magazine journalist, was the only reporter who bothered to attend this afternoon wine tasting. Had he opted out, we may never have heard of it. His review of the wines, the wineries, and the major players is a tribute to his journalistic talent. At the end of the book he even has the individual scores given to the wines from each judge, which resulted in California wines receiving top scores in both white (Chateau Montelena) and red (Stag’s Leap) categories.
Wine shop owner and wine school educator Steven Spurrier invited well-known french wine experts to taste the California wines he had discovered, along with french wines he had found comparable. The tasting was “blind”, so the judges’ biases wouldn’t affect their scores. The results threw a giant spotlight on the wines of California, changing the attitudes of wine lovers toward “New World wines.”
This is the factual version of the tale told in the movie “Bottleshock,” which is very entertaining, but not very true to life. The instigator of the event, Steven Spurrier, went on to be a world-renowned wine consultant, and can be seen in the “Somm” documentaries.
I enjoyed this book, though at some points its a little “dry”, but I liked learning about the histories of the wineries involved, and their winemakers; and how their lives and businesses changed one afternoon in 1976.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wine, or has seen the “Bottleshock” film, or has heard of the Napa Valley wines and wonders what all the “fuss” is about.
George Tabor, Time magazine journalist, was the only reporter who bothered to attend this afternoon wine tasting. Had he opted out, we may never have heard of it. His review of the wines, the wineries, and the major players is a tribute to his journalistic talent. At the end of the book he even has the individual scores given to the wines from each judge, which resulted in California wines receiving top scores in both white (Chateau Montelena) and red (Stag’s Leap) categories.
Wine shop owner and wine school educator Steven Spurrier invited well-known french wine experts to taste the California wines he had discovered, along with french wines he had found comparable. The tasting was “blind”, so the judges’ biases wouldn’t affect their scores. The results threw a giant spotlight on the wines of California, changing the attitudes of wine lovers toward “New World wines.”
This is the factual version of the tale told in the movie “Bottleshock,” which is very entertaining, but not very true to life. The instigator of the event, Steven Spurrier, went on to be a world-renowned wine consultant, and can be seen in the “Somm” documentaries.
I enjoyed this book, though at some points its a little “dry”, but I liked learning about the histories of the wineries involved, and their winemakers; and how their lives and businesses changed one afternoon in 1976.
I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys wine, or has seen the “Bottleshock” film, or has heard of the Napa Valley wines and wonders what all the “fuss” is about.
January 31, 2018
i liked this book a lot.
i don't know a lot about wine, but i drink it very often and feel an obligation to learn more. wine is very cool and i was thirsty while reading (both literally for wine and for knowledge!). anyways, this is a GOOD READ and i would recommend to anyone who likes wine or has any interest in a very weird niche in california history.
i would rate this book 7 bottles of batard montrachet out of a possible eight, which is pretty good if you ask me.
i don't know a lot about wine, but i drink it very often and feel an obligation to learn more. wine is very cool and i was thirsty while reading (both literally for wine and for knowledge!). anyways, this is a GOOD READ and i would recommend to anyone who likes wine or has any interest in a very weird niche in california history.
i would rate this book 7 bottles of batard montrachet out of a possible eight, which is pretty good if you ask me.
February 29, 2024
DNF, despite the fact it was a book group selection. Even though the author is a journalist, I found the text needed a good editing…the storyline was rambling and choppy. And I guess in the end I just didn’t find the subject matter compelling. Too many books, too little time. Audio narration was fine.
September 1, 2024
This book centers on the 1976 wine tasting between French and California wines. Maybe too much back story as the book dragged at times. It is remarkable that the tasting which changed wine perceptions across the world was such a casual event at the time.
May 8, 2025
Long, thorough, and very informative. The book gives a very detailed look at the history and globalization of wine making and the wine industry. He follows the lives of multiple wine makers who were significant in France and in the Napa Valley. The book dives much deeper than the 1976 Paris Tasting and gives a sweeping historical account of the people and events that predated the 1976 tasting and the impacts of the tasting on the globalization of wine.
June 25, 2025
A fascinating history of wine, particularly for California, but quite dense for a novice wine drinker. Call it winemaking 301. I learned a lot of fun facts to share with friends though, and overall it was enjoyable — just more technical and detailed than I needed in several areas.
January 8, 2026
3.75/5
Ok! Paris Tasting!! 50 year anniversary this year and it’s such a cool piece of wine history. Learned a lot and loved hearing how the wine industry grew and came to be in California. The middle lost me for a bit and it did not need to be so long, which docks some points.
Ok! Paris Tasting!! 50 year anniversary this year and it’s such a cool piece of wine history. Learned a lot and loved hearing how the wine industry grew and came to be in California. The middle lost me for a bit and it did not need to be so long, which docks some points.
April 22, 2026
Can’t wait to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this tasting on Sat. Love how many Eastern Europeans are behind these iconic wines
February 17, 2021
Overly long and far more detailed and meandering but we listened to the audiobook version and it was a good book for long car ride
March 7, 2022
A good book gives an informative description of the changing environment of California wineries and the lead-up to the Judgment of Paris wine tasting, which ultimately changed the face of the wine industry throughout the world.
October 4, 2023
If you like history and wine, then this book is for you.
Before I ever started reading this book, I knew what the outcome of the 1976 Paris tasting was. However, this book is SO MUCH more than just the Paris tasting.
I traveled to Napa Valley in 2015 with my husband, and this book gave the history of early winemaking in California. It was so fascinating learning about how many of the vineyards we visited got their start.
After the outcome of the Paris tasting is revealed (and many of the tastings taking place afterwards), the history of wine making in other parts of the world is discussed. While I didn't particularly care for that part, it was interesting to learn about the connections to those new vineyards to vineyards in California and France.
Overall, I give it 4.5 stars.
Before I ever started reading this book, I knew what the outcome of the 1976 Paris tasting was. However, this book is SO MUCH more than just the Paris tasting.
I traveled to Napa Valley in 2015 with my husband, and this book gave the history of early winemaking in California. It was so fascinating learning about how many of the vineyards we visited got their start.
After the outcome of the Paris tasting is revealed (and many of the tastings taking place afterwards), the history of wine making in other parts of the world is discussed. While I didn't particularly care for that part, it was interesting to learn about the connections to those new vineyards to vineyards in California and France.
Overall, I give it 4.5 stars.
June 1, 2010
This is the book that the movie Bottle Shock was supposedly based on. In fact the movie had very little in common with the book, aside from the names of a few of the people involved and the underlying premise of a blind taste test of red and white wines in Paris, some originating from wineries in California and others from well-known French vintners. None of the characterizations of people common to both book and movie (chiefly Steve Spurrier and Jim Barrett) match, and Bo Barrett, around whom the film’s plot revolves, doesn’t really figure into the book at all. So suffice it to say that any impressions you may have from seeing Bottle Shock should have no bearing whatsoever on whether you choose to read Judgment of Paris. (Why didn’t they get oenophile William Goldman to do the screenplay? I’m sure he would have leaped at the opportunity and it would have made for a far better and truer work. Ah, well…)
Back to Judgment. In full candor, I should mention that I know and care next to nothing about wine. I picked this book up from a library sale partly for that reason, but mostly because I needed a fourth volume to make the “Buy 4 for $1” scheme work. This weekend I picked up an $8 bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard’s Cabernet Sauvignon at the grocery store (for a shashlik marinade) and had a glass… not bad… but really, I’m more of a (dark) beer guy with still no real appreciation for wine. That said, I did enjoy this book tremendously. George Taber is a careful journalist with a solid cast of characters (the real Spurrier, immigrant winemakers Andre Tchelistcheff and Mike Grgich, and ex-University of Chicago professor Warren Winiarski) who skillfully combines personal biography, the respective politico-economic histories of winemaking in France (marked most by innovation-dampening regulation) and the United States (marked most by Prohibition), and the agro-scientific complexities involved in converting specific grape cultivars into a beverage with more-or-less pre-planned flavor characteristics. Way cool.
All this and a (non-competitive) blind test in an unused conference room of a Paris hotel which in some ways moved oenophilic stature from the biased branding of terroir to the credibility of – would-you-believe-it – taste. The story of the test itself is a load of fun, though Taber takes a bit too long to get there, insisting on first describing the life and chemical history of all twenty original vintages being consumed. What’s more, Taber appears to be reluctant to let his tale finish gracefully, instead piling on about global economic trends in the wine trade for the roughly thirty years that followed. But on the whole I was surprised to find this book endlessly fascinating, in fact impossible to put down.
Before Taber, I couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would fork over a fat wallet for fermented grape juice. I likes me a good whiskey, but that’s a process with more controlled variables. I’ve always been contented to know I can be sure to find a random red for less than the price of a movie ticket enjoyable as the range of offerings are huge, within-brand consistency is nil, and the supply is nearly endless. So apart from the fact that some folks will pay anything for something, could anything validate the pricing of an expensive bottle of wine? I used to think not, but now I’d have to say yes.
Taber has convinced me that with a wee bit of palate training I could likely discern the relative amount of effort and expertise that went into a given bottle. As one who admires the products of time, effort, and skill smartly blended, I think I could get behind forking over a day’s pay for a couple of hour’s savor… at least on a post hoc basis (sort of like tipping high for exemplary service). Not that that is likely to happen any time soon. I’m too lazy to bother learning to pretend to taste all of the exotic notes bloviated on a pretentiously printed label. Good on you if you do and enjoy doing so. I’ll stay in my budget and at the end of the day, I’ll just drink what I find I like.
Back to Judgment. In full candor, I should mention that I know and care next to nothing about wine. I picked this book up from a library sale partly for that reason, but mostly because I needed a fourth volume to make the “Buy 4 for $1” scheme work. This weekend I picked up an $8 bottle of Beaulieu Vineyard’s Cabernet Sauvignon at the grocery store (for a shashlik marinade) and had a glass… not bad… but really, I’m more of a (dark) beer guy with still no real appreciation for wine. That said, I did enjoy this book tremendously. George Taber is a careful journalist with a solid cast of characters (the real Spurrier, immigrant winemakers Andre Tchelistcheff and Mike Grgich, and ex-University of Chicago professor Warren Winiarski) who skillfully combines personal biography, the respective politico-economic histories of winemaking in France (marked most by innovation-dampening regulation) and the United States (marked most by Prohibition), and the agro-scientific complexities involved in converting specific grape cultivars into a beverage with more-or-less pre-planned flavor characteristics. Way cool.
All this and a (non-competitive) blind test in an unused conference room of a Paris hotel which in some ways moved oenophilic stature from the biased branding of terroir to the credibility of – would-you-believe-it – taste. The story of the test itself is a load of fun, though Taber takes a bit too long to get there, insisting on first describing the life and chemical history of all twenty original vintages being consumed. What’s more, Taber appears to be reluctant to let his tale finish gracefully, instead piling on about global economic trends in the wine trade for the roughly thirty years that followed. But on the whole I was surprised to find this book endlessly fascinating, in fact impossible to put down.
Before Taber, I couldn’t understand why anyone in their right mind would fork over a fat wallet for fermented grape juice. I likes me a good whiskey, but that’s a process with more controlled variables. I’ve always been contented to know I can be sure to find a random red for less than the price of a movie ticket enjoyable as the range of offerings are huge, within-brand consistency is nil, and the supply is nearly endless. So apart from the fact that some folks will pay anything for something, could anything validate the pricing of an expensive bottle of wine? I used to think not, but now I’d have to say yes.
Taber has convinced me that with a wee bit of palate training I could likely discern the relative amount of effort and expertise that went into a given bottle. As one who admires the products of time, effort, and skill smartly blended, I think I could get behind forking over a day’s pay for a couple of hour’s savor… at least on a post hoc basis (sort of like tipping high for exemplary service). Not that that is likely to happen any time soon. I’m too lazy to bother learning to pretend to taste all of the exotic notes bloviated on a pretentiously printed label. Good on you if you do and enjoy doing so. I’ll stay in my budget and at the end of the day, I’ll just drink what I find I like.
August 26, 2017
Enjoyed the story of the tasting itself the most, and the upstart of the California vineyards. Got a bit 'dry' at times in developments of some recent wineries. Now have many wines to try as rest of reading book. I hope I can afford some of them!
October 21, 2020
“Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the gods to man.” - Plato
“Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Far better than I expected. Included more background and history of Napa and specific wineries that I didn’t realize I wanted. It’s great to be able to discuss the history, terroir, and vineyards of the places you are a member at; brings more to the experience of the tasting and appreciation to the uniqueness of each vintage.
“Wine is like the incarnation—-it is both divine and human.” - Paul Tillich
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” - Galileo
“To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.” - Clifton Fadiman
“The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry.”
- Louis Pasteur
“Give me wine to wash me clean of the weather-stains of cares.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Far better than I expected. Included more background and history of Napa and specific wineries that I didn’t realize I wanted. It’s great to be able to discuss the history, terroir, and vineyards of the places you are a member at; brings more to the experience of the tasting and appreciation to the uniqueness of each vintage.
“Wine is like the incarnation—-it is both divine and human.” - Paul Tillich
“Wine is sunlight, held together by water.” - Galileo
“To take wine into our mouths is to savor a droplet of the river of human history.” - Clifton Fadiman
“The flavor of wine is like delicate poetry.”
- Louis Pasteur
June 4, 2013
This was a fun and interesting read. I enjoy wine very much but don't pretend to know much about it, although I do have some personal experience working at a vineyard and a winery as a kid. I don't think a reader needs to be a wine aficionado to enjoy this book at all, but there are sections that will be more interesting to those readers who do know a little bit about the process of wine-making than to those who do not know anything. This book is so much more than "just" wine, however...it's written by a journalist who was actually at the event that forms the centerpiece of the book, so it is very accessible with a personal touch. Anyone who enjoys that type of writing should enjoy this. It is also full of history and science, which means that even though it might seem like only a niche audience would enjoy it, a much broader audience should, and i think will.
August 7, 2017
The Judgement of Paris is about wine making. It talks about the history of the industry in France, and how it developed in California. All this history leads up to the famous tasting in 1976, when California wines beat out French wines in a blind taste test in Paris. After that, the whole world started to develop wine, and the book goes on to describe the rise of the industry in Australia and South Africa, as well as how things changed in Napa.
I read this because I love the movie Bottle Shock, about the 1976 tasting. The movie definitely fictionalizes and dramatizes the event. But the tasting takes up very little of this book. So unless you are just dying to learn about the details of developing wineries in Napa and the history of wine making techniques you can skip this one. Not bad, just not what I was looking for.
I read this because I love the movie Bottle Shock, about the 1976 tasting. The movie definitely fictionalizes and dramatizes the event. But the tasting takes up very little of this book. So unless you are just dying to learn about the details of developing wineries in Napa and the history of wine making techniques you can skip this one. Not bad, just not what I was looking for.
September 14, 2011
Never thought I would be so enthralled by a wine tasting and it's effects on the wine world. I was also surprised at how much this book is story of perseverance by the winemakers in California. I decided to read this book because of the movie Bottle Shock. It is much better than the movie. Aside from the fact that events in the movie are highly dramatized, the book offers much more content and gives you the full story. The detailed history of California wines in the first part of the book, makes the actual tasting seem much more important. And I very much enjoyed the author going into detail about the effects of the results of the event. Taber really takes the story full circle.
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