CritterWhine
Reviews
The
Judgment
of Paris
Revisited
Where Are They Now?
by Glen Emil
Reviews
The
Judgment
of Paris
Revisited
Where Are They Now?
by Glen Emil
Produced by
Lisa Ames, The Wine Outlet
The Wine Outlet McLean
6727 Curran St McLean, VA 22101
703-288-2970
organized by Lisa Ames
from The Wine Outlet
Reviewed
17 May 2019
by Glen Emil,
CritterWhine.com
For two hours
I was Aubert de Villaine. At least, I pretended to be. Re-enacting the famous 1976 comparative wine tasting which became the Judgment of Paris, I tried to imagine what it was like to taste the wines of this magnitude, all within two hours time. Savouring a full glass of each was out of the question, but I was determined to find the key in each one ounce sample. It was as close as I ever would get to this level of great wine in one sitting. Joined in adjacent hot seats were eight other [amateur, I assume] judges with assumed personalities had an excitement all its own, even without the verbal bloodshed of the original battle 43 years earlier. This was to be a well-humored event, and one meant to educate us.
Midway thru the white Burgundies, I began to wonder why my 'nom-de-jour' [thank you Justin] for the evening, Messr de Villaine, was doing at an event like this back in 1976. He was the only vigneron attending, and I imagined overseeing his vineyards would be his first priority, as his vines in the Domaine de la Romanee Conti and Le Montrachet would soon be flowering for the summer growing season. There's vigorous vine growth happening in late May, unwanted buds and suckers need clipping and new shoots trained. He and his then co-manager, Lalou Bize-Leroy, had just taken over managing the Domaine just two years earlier. Maybe he took Spurrier's judging invitation to divert rising anxiety about the coming season. The previous years had been cold, wet hard ones for DRC, 'after four fairly disastrous years' as Micheal Broadbent wrote in his tasting notes for the 1976 pinot noir harvest and bottling, and the Domaine's Le Montrachet whites hadn't been very good since the 1971 vintage. Aubert de Villaine probably wanted a break. Little did he know. 
We all had about three or four minutes to evaluate and score each of the wines poured. I wanted to take notes, for my own reference, which added pressure to the race to discern well. Naturally, the first group of wines took more than half the total alloted time, so the last ten wines had to move even faster. Quel rats! But on we sipped and jotted, all excited to see if the second group, the reds, would prove as surprising as the Chardonnays. In essence, it would be our combined task to rank the wines by preference, but also to guess their countries of origin. You see, the aftershock of the original event in 1976 laid bare the naivete of many traditional assumptions: that French wines were to be always clearly superior, especially against new and unknown [relatively] regions, that any comments and actual scores at such an event could remain hidden, and that results would be kept close to the chest to spare any embarrasements. But it was the American press there in '76, in the form of George Taber, from Time magazine. Expose-style reporting was all the rage after Watergate brought Nixon down two years earlier. Powerhouse take-downs made for good reading. We cleansed our palates with a Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis Grand Cru Les Clos 2015. The white wine results: America's Freemark Abbey, Ch Montelena and David Bruce were the top three. The top French was Matrot Meurseult-Charmes at No.4. 
Our results for the red Bordeaux and California cabs were equally surprising. Hundreds of Judgment of Paris re-enactments over the last 43 years had proven one thing: American wines and French wines are of the highest quality. It's a matter of preference. Gatekeepers wishing to keep either French or American wines on the podium have enjoyed dozens of defeats and victories since then. Our tasting this evening was real-life edutainment: had we, modern, open-minded and well-educated wine consumers actually gained anything from the experiences of others, over the decades? I think we all learned that yes, there are wines that do better on a scoresheet. Yes, some wines can taste 'better' in relation to others. Rankings are fun. But I think everyone understood this evening that their palates and egos did not suffer one iota from choosing a fifth-place wine as their favorite. That's just how it goes. That's my brilliant take-home from the Wine Outlet McLean store's event on this Friday evening, May 17. Good wines are good wines, it's the drinkers who are competitive." The top results for the reds: Americans Freemark Abbey, Clos du Val and Mayacamas took the top three. Stag's Leap came in 5th (Stag's Leap Artemis was opened this evening, not their S.L.V., the equivalent of the Paris bottle). Those American judges! The top French was Ch Leoville Las Cases, in 6th place. 
Many, many thanks to Lisa Ames from Wine Outlet for conceiving and organizing this memorable event. Visit the Wine Outlet's McLean Facebook page for more pictures and official results at www.facebook.com/mcleanwineoutlet. - Glen Emil, May 17, 2019 
The wines tasted this evening, in the order of tasting: whites: Domaine Marc Morey Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 2015 Chalone Gavilan Chardonnay 2014 Olivier Leflaive Montrachet Grand Cru 2014 Matrot Meurseult Charmes 1er Cru 2016 Keenan Chardonnay Spring Mountain District 2017 Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches 2016 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2016 David Bruce Chardonnay 2015 Freemark Abbey Chardonnay 2016 (No replacement for the original Veedercrest Chardonnay) reds: Chateau Montrose 2006 St Estephe Chateau Haut Brion 2008 Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon Mt Veeder 2013 Clos du Val Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Chateau Leoville Las Cases San Julien-Medoc 2012 Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2015 Stag's Leap Artemis 2016 (the original winning wine is now called SLV) Heitz Cellar Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Martha's Vineyard was originally tasted) Ridge Monte Bello 2014 revised July 17, 2020 |
Photographs by Lisa Ames and Glen Emil [side panel]