The Legacy of Paris

I was at a dinner in London at which the host, a serious Bordeaux and Burgundy collector, went ‘off-piste’ and served a trio of magnificent Californian reds.

First up was an Abstract 2017, a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Petit Sirah, followed by a Machete 2022, made again with Petit Sirah, Syrah and Grenache. Both wines came from the Orin Swift Winery, founded by winemaker Dave Phinney in 1998 and sold to E&J Gallo in 2016 for a figured rumoured to be $300 million. As part of the deal, Phinney stuck around. He still makes the wine – at last count 20 different Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone varietals and blends made with grapes sourced in Napa and across the state – and chooses the iconic labels. Abstract’s is a pop-art collage, while Machete’s is a scantily clad model in a fur coat wielding the eponymous weapon. The one for his latest wine, Advice from John, a Merlot, is inspired by graffiti found in public lavatories.
The third wine was Ridge Monte Bello 2022, an aristocrat compared to Orin Swift’s new kids on the block, and a wine to whom Phinney, might in a round-about-way, owe a debt of gratitude.

It was a Ridge Monte Bello 1971 that was part of a line up at a blind tasting in Paris on May 24, 1976 that arguably changed the wine landscape forever. It was in the French capital that the late, then Paris-based, British wine merchant, Steven Spurrier, then 36 years old, pitted the best California Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays against the finest wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. The Americans swept the board, in one morning destroying the hitherto unchallenged authority of French wine.

“There were no non-French wines in France,” Spurrier told me in 2019. “There was a bit of port and sherry, and madeira was used for cooking.” Hence, the motivation to show the best tasters in France what the Californians could do.

He invited nine of the most formidable palates in Paris, including Odette Kahn, the matriarch of Paris wine writers, Raymond Oliver, owner of Le Grand Véfour, the greatest restaurant in Paris, and the respected wine writer Michel Dovaz. But with a week to go, Spurrier feared they might draw unfair conclusions about the geography and climate of California and automatically compare the wines to the woeful examples from Portugal and Spain, and “damn them with faint praise”.

So he upped the stakes. “I decided to turn it into a blind tasting, pitting the Californians against the best white Burgundies and the finest Cabernet Sauvignon-dominated wines from Bordeaux.” When the tasters arrived, they were told of the change of plan. “‘Pas de problème’ seemed to be the unanimous feeling,” recalled Spurrier. The wines were poured, and the judges swirled, sniffed, tasted and spat, before giving their scores. At the end of the first flight, the Chardonnays, not a single judge voted for a Grand Cru Burgundy over a wine from California, with Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena 1973 coming top. Time magazine writer George Taber, the only journalist present, described the reaction in the room as “shock and horror”.

Surely the clarets would restore French honour? Scores were tighter, but it was a Californian Cab, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973, that pipped the Bordeaux heavyweights. Even then, the event might have passed unnoticed. After all, the French press stayed away, seeing no reason to give it any importance. It was only the presence of Taber, and photos taken by Spurrier’s wife, Bella, that helped the story make the papers. The implications were considerable. “It was the first chink in the armour of French wines,” said Spurrier. “There had been whispers, but no one had really questioned the dominant authority of France.”

California Chardonnays
Chalone Vineyard 1974
Chateau Montelena 1973
David Bruce Winery 1973
Freemark Abbey 1972
Spring Mountain 1973
Veedercrest Vineyards 1972

Cabernet Sauvignons
Clos du Val Winery 1972
Freemark Abbey 1969
Heitz Cellar Martha’s Vineyard 1970
Mayacamas Vineyards 1971
Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello 1971
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973

Michael Karam is a journalist, editor and wine writer. He is the author of Wines of Lebanon and a contributor to Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine.

Michael Karam’s latest book ‘Wines of Lebanon: The Journey Continues’ is available from Académie du Vin