The Robert Mondavi brand was sold to beverage giant Constellation Brands in 2004, and Mondavi went on to found Continuum Estate with his son Tim and daughter Marcia. Opus One, the resulting wine, first appeared in 1980, and has gone on to become one of California's more iconic Cabernet Sauvignon wines, netting both high praise and high prices.Īlthough Opus One is now a separate entity to Robert Mondavi Winery, it still bears Mondavi's silhouette on the bottle. One of Mondavi's most high-profile contributions to Californian winemaking came via a collaboration with Baron Philippe de Rothschild of Château Mouton Rothschild. Mondavi's Private Selection wines fall under the sizeable Central Coast appellation, and Woodbridge wines are labelled under the generic California appellation, although many of the vineyards are located in Lodi. The range spans vineyards throughout Napa, including sites in Carneros and Stags Leap. Today the winery makes wines from a host of grape varieties, including Merlot, Chardonnay, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir and Moscato. Over the years, Mondavi has employed some of Napa's most famous winemakers, including Mike Grgich (of Chateau Montelena), Warren Winiarski (of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars) and Zelma Long (of Simi Winery). To Kalon, originally planted in 1868, became the epicentre of his estate, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc (often labeled Fumé Blanc in California) providing the backbone of the Mondavi range. His stated aim was to swap quantity for quality, believing that good wine could be made in the valley. Which means the world's wine lovers were the real winners that day.Mondavi founded the winery after a less-than-amicable split from his family's business, Charles Krug. The Judgment of Paris prompted the world's winemakers to start sharing and comparing in a way they hadn't done before, says Warren Winiarski, the Polish-American founder of Stag's Leap, whose cabernet sauvignon took top honors among the reds in Paris.Īs a result, he said at a recent Smithsonian event in honor of that long-ago tasting, "the wines of the world are better, the wines of France are better." (think Oregon, Washington and Virginia) and the world - from Argentina to Australia. In the aftermath of the tasting, new vineyards bloomed around the U.S. The results "gave winemakers everywhere a reason to believe that they too could take on the greatest wines in the world," White says. As the late Jim Barrett, part owner of Napa Valley's Chateau Montelena, told Taber back in 1976, the results were "not bad for kids from the sticks."Īnd it wasn't just California that was transformed. While winemaker Robert Mondavi played a major role in making California the wine powerhouse it is today, the Paris tasting was equally influential, White says. "The 1976 judgment totally changed the game," says White, who runs the popular wine blog Terroirist and is the author of the forthcoming book But First, Champagne: A Modern Guide to the World's Favorite Wine. Wine writer David White says the tasting was a major turning point for the industry. When it was over, Kahn unsuccessfully demanded her scorecard back - according to Taber, "she wanted to make sure that the world didn't know what her scores were." So, prompted by Patricia Gallagher, his American associate, Spurrier decided to stage a competition that highlighted the new California wines they'd been hearing so much about. Steven Spurrier, an Englishman who owned a wine shop in Paris, wanted to drum up business. The Judgment of Paris, as that May 24, 1976, wine tasting has come to be known, began as a publicity stunt. It opened the door for this phenomenon today of the globalization of wine," Taber says. "It turned out to be the most important event, because it broke the myth that only in France could you make great wine. And he ended up getting the biggest story of his career: To everyone's amazement, the California wines - red and white - beat out their French competitors. Taber did attend, as a favor to the organizers. He says everyone thought "it's going to be a nonstory." "Obviously, the French wines were going to win," says George Taber, who was then a correspondent for Time magazine in Paris. Only one journalist bothered to show up - the outcome was considered a foregone conclusion. It was the tasting that revolutionized the wine world.įorty years ago today, the crème de la crème of the French wine establishment sat in judgment for a blind tasting that pitted some of the finest wines in France against unknown California bottles. Nine of the most respected names in French gastronomy sat in judgment. On May 24, 1976, the Judgment of Paris pitted some of the finest wines in France against unknown California bottles in a blind taste test.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |