An already legendary wine tasting that took place in Paris on 24 May 1976 on the initiative of the English wine merchant and expert on French wines Steven Spurrier (1941-2021). Also known as the "Judgment of Paris", the event is memorable for several reasons. Firstly, no expert had expected this surprising result, secondly, it resulted in worldwide discussions and significant repercussions in the international wine world, and thirdly, because the competition took place in four stages over a period of thirty years.
The competition has so far been repeated three times with the original wines; the third and fourth only with the red wines. Finally, there was also a book about it, the US journalist George M. Taber published the 350-page work "Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionised Wine" in 2006. And last but not least, this material was even made into a film in 2008 under the title "Bottle Shock" with director Randall Miller; however, Spurrier was very dissatisfied with this due to what he considered to be partly fictitious details (see also a list of films on the subject of wine and viticulture under the keyword cinema and TV films).
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Thorsten Rahn
Restaurantleiter, Sommelier, Weindozent und Autor; Dresden