Fifty Years After Paris, a Blind Tasting Returned to Napa Valley
Tracy Warr October 16, 2026
Tracy Warr October 16, 2026
Every wine region has a moment people point to as the turning point. For Napa Valley, it happened on May 24, 1976, in Paris, when a panel of French judges tasted blind and ranked a Napa Chardonnay and a Napa Cabernet above some of the most revered wines in France. The Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet put this valley on the world map, and the story has been told ever since as the Judgment of Paris.
As a sommelier, that story is part of the foundation of how I think about this region, so I could not pass up the chance to attend the Judgment of Napa on October 5th. The event was created and produced by Cultured Vine and its founder, Angela Duerr, as a tribute to that moment. It was held at historic Freemark Abbey in St. Helena, on what would have been the 85th birthday of Steven Spurrier, the British wine merchant who organized the original tasting.
A room full of living history
What made the day so special was who was there. Cultured Vine brought together people connected to the 1976 tasting for the first time on American soil, including Patricia Gastaud-Gallagher, Spurrier’s American business partner, who conceived the original tasting, and Bella Spurrier, whose photographs captured the day in Paris. Freemark Abbey was the perfect setting as they are currently celebrating 140 years of winemaking, and was the only winery represented with both a red and a white in the original Paris lineup.
How the tasting worked
Twenty wines were poured blind, ten whites and ten reds, selected by Master of Wine Peter Marks and Master Sommelier Peter Granoff from some of the world’s most celebrated producers across Burgundy, Bordeaux, California, and beyond. Every wine was decanted and poured by top sommeliers from Michelin starred restaurants across California and the Pacific Northwest Vintages were matched across regions so that terroir and craftsmanship, rather than reputation, would decide the outcome. The judges included winemakers such as Philippe Melka, Angelina Mondavi, Aaron Pott, Tor Kenward, Chris Carpenter, Michael Silacci, and Jesse Katz alongside critic Jancis Robinson MW, with Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson as emcee.
For anyone trained to taste, blind tasting is the great equalizer. Without a label to lean on, the wine has to speak for itself, which is exactly what made Paris so powerful in 1976.
The red wine results
The red category produced an exciting historic first. The winner was the 2021 Collage Proprietary Red from Aperture in Sonoma County, made by Jesse Katz, the first Sonoma County wine to finish first in the event’s history. Here is how the top of the field landed:
Napa Valley wines claimed four of the top ten spots in total, with Chappellet’s Pritchard Hill Cabernet also placing eighth, standing alongside Bordeaux, Chile, and Italy.
What it all means
I love that this tasting was never about declaring one region the permanent champion. The 1976 Paris tasting opened the door for California, and the Judgment of Napa shows how far that door has opened. Today Napa and Sonoma are part of the same larger conversation about where great Cabernet and Bordeaux style wines come from, and that conversation is being decided, glass by glass. It is also a reminder that some of the most exciting bottles come from places we might not have thought to look, like the Cachapoal Valley in Chile, whose Viña VIK placed ninth in the red lineup. Discovering a wonderful wine from a lesser known region is one of the great joys of loving wine, and the best part is that it is rarely a solo experience. Wine is meant to be shared, poured across a table, debated, and remembered together, and that sense of community is what makes it so special.
It is a special thing to live in a place where wine history is still being written, and as a sommelier, to stand in a winery where part of that story began.
Have you tried any of the wines from the tasting, or do you have a favorite Napa or Sonoma Cabernet that deserves a place in the conversation? I would love to hear it! Follow along for more of what is happening in Napa Valley and Sonoma.
Tracy Warr
Napa Valley & Sonoma Real Estate Specialist
Coldwell Banker Global Luxury® | Coldwell Banker Brokers of the Valley
707.287.1994 | [email protected] | TracyWarrCo.com
DRE #01443203
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Inside the Judgment of Napa, created by Cultured Vine and held at Freemark Abbey, where the people who lived the 1976 tasting gathered and the results made history all… Read more
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