O dia em que vinhos do novo mundo ganharam uma batalha e abriram mercado para vinhos australianos, chilenos, argentinos, uruguaios, sul-africanos..
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On May 24, 1976, a seminal event for Americans took place in Paris. Stephen Spurrier, a Britisher who ran a wine shop and taught wine classes (mainly about French wines) in Paris, with the help of employee Patricia Gallagher, an American, had spent some time organizing a tasting of California and French wines for a group of all-French wine experts. Spurrier knew that if they could see the labels, the California wines would be relegated to the bottom of the barrel. So he served the wines blind, asking that they be scored on a scale of 20.
Stephen knew very little about California wines and was really out to prove nothing other than to show some of the better California wines that he and Patricia had discovered. For starters, he “stacked the deck” in favor of the French by pitting a Batard-Montrachet, Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles, Meursault-Charmes and Beaune Clos des Mouches from the most famous and well-regarded French producers against six upstarts from California in the Chardonnay tasting.
Equally lopsided, he thought, he selected two First Growths: Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild from the heralded 1970 vintage, a 1970 Chateau Montrose and a 1971 Chateau Leoville-Las-Cases (each fabulous Second Growths) to rival six upstarts from California in the Cabernet Sauvignon tasting. Although the event was widely publicized, only one reporter attended: George M. Taber from “Time” magazine. It was obvious to the French press that this would be a nonevent!
In what has become known as another “Waterloo” for the French, Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973 placed first, Chalone Chardonnay third and Spring Mountain Chardonnay fourth in the Chardonnay competition. And even worse for the French, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 won first place in the Cabernet Sauvignon competition, beating Mouton and Haut-Brion, which came in second and third, respectively.”
http://www.localwineevents.com/resources/articles/view/223/the-1976-paris-tastinga-seminal-event-for-americans#