The Judgement Of Paris

More than four decades ago, a group of wine aficionados sat down to decipher which wines were best – French or Californian. Rebecca Younger visited The Vineyard, in Berkshire, to find out more about the event which completely revolutionised the world of wine

AS you enter The Vineyard, a hotel in Stockcross near Newbury, owned by Sir Peter Michael, you can’t help but be impressed; firstly by the mighty selection of bottles displayed in a huge glass wine vault (the hotel has a collection of 30,000 bottles) and then by the magnificent oil painting that hangs the other side of the glass walkway. While the painting mimics the style of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper, it is actually inspired by an event that occurred almost 44 years ago – and which shook the wine world to its core.

On May 24, 1976, a group of oenophiles gathered in Paris for a blind tasting to see which wines tasted the best – French (which at the time dominated wine racks across the globe) or the lesser-known Californian varieties.

Dubbed the Judgment of Paris, the showdown was organised by British wine merchant Steven Spurrier. In the French corner were top-notch Bordeaux and Burgundies, while the new world wines came in the form of Californian Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays.