Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles 1972 Leflaive.The Chardonnays were tasted first, all judges marking out of 20 with their marks totalled and divided by nine, the number of judges on the panel. The order of pouring had been drawn out of a hat the day before. Choosing the best of these from my shop, on the day I asked the judges if they had a problem with my including benchmarks and they agreed that this would indeed make the tasting more interesting. This realisation persuaded us to turn it into a blind tasting with top benchmark clarets and white Burgundies. It was only a week or so before the tasting that it occurred to us that only one of the judges – Aubert de Villaine whose wife, Pamela, was from San Francisco – would have ever tasted California wine before and that the other eight, knowing that the State was a little north of Mexico on America’s West Coast, might have taken geography into account and not given our selection the attention we thought they deserved. To avoid problems with French customs had the wines been shipped, they were carried by hand to Paris by a group of 20 or so wine producers and their wives, under the guidance of the great André Tchelistcheff for a wine tour of France organised by Joanne Dickinson. The selection of six Chardonnays and six Cabernets was made and two bottles of each were purchased. This was because we were looking for smaller, “hands-on” estates that were known in France as “boutique” wineries. All that was needed now was for me to go to California and make the final selection, so my wife and I flew out in late April to San Francisco and, again with the help of wine writer Robert Finigan, set to work.Īfter the tasting we were asked why there were no “big” names such as Mondavi, Beaulieu Vineyards or Buena Vista. Thanks to Ernst Van Damm, one of the regular clients at my “Caves de la Madeleine” wine shop and publicity director of the nearby Intercontinental Hotel, we were offered the terrace rooms from 3 pm to 6 pm on May 24, 1976. The next step was to find a venue suitable for the occasion. The judges were Pierre Brejoux, Inspector General of the Appellation d’Origne Contrôlée Board Michel Dovaz, head teacher at L’Academie du Vin Claude Dubois-Millot of Gault Millau Magazine Odette Kahn, editor of the Revue du Vin de France Raymond Oliver, chef and owner of Le Grand Véfour three-star restaurant Pierre Tari, owner of Château Giscours in Margaux Christian Vanneque, head sommelier at La Tour d’Argent 3-star restaurant Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Jean-Claude Vrinat, owner of Taillevent three-star restaurant. L’Academie du Vin, the first independent and self-financing wine school in France, was well-respected, so Patricia and I had little difficulty in getting acceptances from our list of potential judges. Throughout the autumn we made a plan to show carefully-selected California Chardonnays and Cabernets to an elite group of tasters with the aim of getting their quality recognised and perhaps talked about. Thanks to introductions from wine writer Robert Finigan, Gallagher went from winery to winery and came back totally enthused. The wines were a revelation to our French-biased palates and Patricia Gallagher, American-born director of the school, took her summer vacation to visit California. L’Academie’s tasting room in the centre of Paris at the time was a magnet for visiting winemakers and American wine writers keen to show us what was going on in California. The reason for my presence was that this year was the 40th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris, the tasting that my wine school L’Academie du Vin held on May 24, 1976, the 200th anniversary of the American War of Independence. My invitation to attend the Naples (Florida) Winter Wine Festival came with the request that I create a Lot for their annual auction for the Naples Children and Education Foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of under-privileged and at-risk children. On the 40th anniversary of this famous tasting, which revolutionised the world of wine, Steven Spurrier tells the illuminating back story All nine judges seated with Steven Spurrier sixth from the left and Aubert de Villaine, the co-owner of Domaine de la Romanee- Conti, at the head
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