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On May 26, 1976 — just 25 years ago — a group of unknown California wines went up against a battery of France's best at a blind tasting in Paris — and won the day.
Totally.
The nine judges, all French experts, were outraged. Some even tried to change their decisions. They couldn't, but what did change was the future of the American wine business. There are 1,600 commercial wineries in the United States, a number that has tripled since the tasting.
American winemakers had long believed they could take on the French; it took a young English wine merchant based in Paris, Steven Spurrier, who arranged the event, to show them they were right.
The best red: a Stag's Leap Wine Cellars cabernet; the best white, a Chateau Montelena chardonnay. Both were Napa Valley wines.
To prove his enthusiasm had not been misplaced, Mr. Spurrier held the same tasting, with only the red wines, 10 years later. The Americans won again. FRANK J. PRIAL