French Whine

Last night, as I was savoring some non-French Merlot, I was reminded of a story of a wine competition between French wines and vino from California. I did a Google search and found an article from Business Week titled “The Day California Wines Came of Age” – the subtitle says it all: “Much to France's chagrin, a blind taste test 25 years ago in Paris inadvertently launched California's fine wine industry.”

In a nutshell, a blind-taste-test wine competition between French and California wines was held in Paris in 1976. The greatest sommeliers of France were assembled to rank the wines and – quel horror! – California wines were chosen for the best red and white. The French were puzzled, then outraged, and barred the contest organizer from the country’s wine-tasting tour for a year. Bolstered by the new-found prestige, the California wine industry exploded; in the decade from 1980 to 1990, the number of California wineries tripled.

Read the whole thing, as they say.