Judgment of Paris (wine)

grapes from Ridge's Monte Bello vineyard. Red wines White wines ==The judges==

demanded her ballot back and later criticized the Paris tasting. ==Method==

Blind tasting was performed and the judges were asked to grade each wine out of 20 points. No specific grading framework was given, leaving the judges free to grade according to their own criteria. Rankings of the wines preferred by individual judges were based on the grades they individually attributed. An overall ranking of the wines preferred by the jury was also established in averaging the sum of each judge's individual grades (arithmetic mean). However, grades of Patricia Gallagher and Steven Spurrier were not taken into account, thus counting only grades of French judges. ==The results==

White wines California Chardonnays vs. Burgundy Chardonnays . Official jury results: Red wines California Cabernet Sauvignon vs. Bordeaux Official jury results： Average Original grades: out of 20 points. Breakdown by judge The original grades (out of 20 points) are shown, in alphabetical order by judge. was judge Pierre Brejoux's highest ranking red wine selection. Pierre Brejoux Original grades: out of 20 points. 's highest ranking red wine. Claude Dubois-Millot Original grades: out of 20 points. Michel Dovaz Original grades: out of 20 points. Patricia Gallagher Original grades: out of 20 points. was judge Odette Kahn's highest ranking red wine. Odette Kahn Original grades: out of 20 points. Raymond Oliver Original grades: out of 20 points. Steven Spurrier Original grades: out of 20 points. Pierre Tari Original grades: out of 20 points. when he participated in the tasting. Christian Vanneque Original grades: out of 20 points. was judge Aubert de Villaine's second highest red after Chateau Montrose. Aubert de Villaine Original grades: out of 20 points. Jean-Claude Vrinat Original grades: out of 20 points. == Interpretations and replications ==

Statistical interpretation Orley Ashenfelter and Richard E. Quandt analyzed the results of all 11 judges instead of only nine and proposed a slightly different ranking (see below). They also stated that only the scores of the first two wines in their ranking were statistically valid, and that the seven other wines could not be differentiated statistically. • Stag's Leap Wine Cellars '73 • Montrose '70 • Mouton '70 • Haut Brion '70 • Ridge Monte Bello '71 • Heitz Martha's '70 • Leoville-las-cases '71 • Freemark Abbey '69 • Mayacamas '71 • Clos du Val '72 In a 2026 analysis, Richard Ballantyne MW identified arithmetic errors in the white wine totals published in Taber's 2005 book, finding that Château Montelena and Meursault Charmes scored identically on the official nine-judge panel, making the white flight a tie rather than a clear Californian victory. Applying ordinal ranking, Borda count and the Condorcet method to the red wine scores, Ballantyne found Château Haut-Brion to be the most consistently preferred wine on the panel, placing first on three of four aggregation methods. Tasting replications Some critics argued that French red wines would age better than the California reds, so this was tested. On 11 January 1978, evaluators blind-tasted the same Chardonnays tasted earlier in Paris. • – 1974 Chalone Vineyard • – 1973 Chateau Montelena • – 1973 Spring Mountain Vineyard • – 1972 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles Domaine Leflaive. Ranking lower were Meursault Charmes Roulot 1973, Beaune Clos des Mouches Joseph Drouhin 1973, and Batard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon 1973. On 12 January 1978, evaluators blind-tasted the same Cabernet Sauvignons tasted earlier in Paris. • – 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars • – 1970 Heitz Wine Cellars Martha's vineyard • – 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello • – 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild. Ranking lower were Château Montrose 1970, Château Haut-Brion 1970, and Château Leoville Las Cases 1971. French Culinary Institute Tasting of 1986 Two tastings were conducted by the French Culinary Institute (now called the International Culinary Center) on the tenth anniversary of the original Paris Wine Tasting. White wines were not evaluated in the belief that they were past their prime. ''The Tasting that Changed the Wine World: 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary'' was conducted on 24 May 2006. The pearl anniversary was held simultaneously at the museum Copia in Napa, California, and in London at Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine merchant. The panel of nine wine experts at Copia consisted of Dan Berger, Anthony Dias Blue, Stephen Brook, Wilfred Jaeger, Peter Marks MW, Paul Roberts MS, Andrea Immer Robinson MS, Jean-Michel Valette MW and Christian Vanneque, one of the original judges from the 1976 tasting. The panel of nine experts at Berry Bros. & Rudd consisted of Michel Bettane, Michael Broadbent MW, Michel Dovaz, Hugh Johnson, Matthew Jukes, Jane MacQuitty, Jasper Morris MW, Jancis Robinson OBE MW and Brian St. Pierre. The results showed that additional panels of experts again preferred the California wines over their French competitors. ;Results • – Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971 • – Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 • – Mayacamas Vineyards 1971 (tie) • – Heitz Wine Cellars 'Martha's Vineyard' 1970 (tie) • – Clos Du Val Winery 1972 • – Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970 • – Château Montrose 1970 • – Château Haut-Brion 1970 • – Château Leoville Las Cases 1971 • – Freemark Abbey Winery 1969 Three of the Bordeaux wines in the competition were from the 1970 vintage, identified by the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) as among the four best vintages in the past 45 years or more. The fourth Bordeaux was a 1971, described by the Conseil as "very good". Another official French authority, the Office national interprofessionnel des vins (Onivins), rates the 1971 vintage as "excellent". The French wine producers had many years' experience making wine, whereas the California producers typically had only a few years' experience; the 1972 vintage was Clos Du Val's very first, yet it performed better than any of its French competitors. ==Implications in the wine industry==

Although Spurrier had invited many reporters to the original 1976 tasting, the only reporter to attend was George M. Taber from Time, who promptly revealed the results to the world. The horrified and enraged leaders of the French wine industry then banned Spurrier from the nation's prestigious wine-tasting tour for a year, apparently as punishment for the damage his tasting had done to its former image of superiority. The New York Times reported that several earlier tastings had occurred in the U.S., with American chardonnays judged ahead of their French rivals. One such tasting occurred in New York just six months before the Paris tasting, but "champions of the French wines argued that the tasters were Americans with possible bias toward American wines. What is more, they said, there was always the possibility that the Burgundies had been mistreated during the long trip from the (French) wineries." The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 had a revolutionary impact on expanding the production and prestige of wine in the New World. It also "gave the French a valuable incentive to review traditions that were sometimes more accumulations of habit and expediency, and to reexamine convictions that were little more than myths taken on trust." ==In the media==

• Bottle Shock, a feature film starring Alan Rickman and Chris Pine, dramatized the 1976 wine tasting and debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. A second film (Judgment of Paris, based on George Taber's book of the same name) was in production, and there has been allegations of defamation and misrepresentation between the makers of the two films. • Modern Marvels (S:13, E:54 – "How Wine is Made".) Discussion of the event is summarized in this History Channel show. • On September 12, 2025, in an interview between Kip Cranna (of San Francisco Opera) and Jake Heggie (the composer), Heggie said that he would be creating a one-act opera for the 2026 Festival Napa Valley celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the 250th anniversary of the United States, and the 20th anniversary of Festival Napa Valley. ==See also==