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Title details for Judgment of Paris by George M. Taber - Available

Judgment of Paris

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

by George M. Taber
Sean Runnette
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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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 30, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781452623436
      • File size: 401820 KB
      • Duration: 13:57:07

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      The golden age of viticulture was sparked by the now-famous 1976 Paris Tasting, where a panel of French wine experts blindly compared the country's most coveted wines against the new generation of California wines, shockingly exalting the latter. Taber documents not only this historic event, but all of wine production. Sean Runnette is clearly enamored by the subject as he lends eloquent emotion to vine-to-bottle creations. But key wine-making traditions and prized varietals have customarily carried a French appellation, and Runnette does not speak these terms with a credible accent. Taber's vivid prose covers the momentous tasting and the current globalization of the industry and introduces the pioneers whose new techniques resulted in the game-changing future of California wine production. A.W. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 27, 2005
      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.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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