Claude Dubois-Millot

Last updated

Claude Dubois-Millot was sales director of the Gault Millau restaurant guide and served as one of the eleven judges of the historic Judgment of Paris wine tasting. He was the only judge on the all-French panel that did not have previous experience in wine competition after spending the majority of his career in the automobile industry prior to joining GaultMillau in 1973. Originally his brother, the food critic Christian Millau, was slated to be on the panel but Claude served as a substitute. [1]

Judgment of Paris 1976

During the tasting, Dubois-Millot was noted for proclaiming the Batard-Montrachet Ramonet-Prudhon as being an "obviously Californian" because it had no nose. He later admitted that such confusion did show how far in quality that Californian wines had come. [2]

Related Research Articles

David Bruce Winery

David Bruce Winery is a California winery located at about 2,200 feet (670 m) elevation in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA above Silicon Valley in Northern California. It was established by dermatologist David Bruce, M.D., in 1964 about a mile away from the Martin Ray Vineyard that often appears on vineyard designated wines from David Bruce. The vineyard achieved international visibility when one of the winery's Chardonnays was featured in the 1976 wine tasting competition that became known as the Judgment of Paris. Today the winery specializes in Pinot noir.

Judgment of Paris (wine) 1976 wine competition in Paris

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines. A Californian wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win.

Blinded wine tasting is wine tasting undertaken in circumstances in which the tasters are kept unaware of the wines' identities. The blind approach is routine for wine professionals who wish to ensure impartiality in the judgment of the quality of wine during wine competitions or in the evaluation of a sommelier for professional certification. More recently wine scientists have used blinded tastings to explore the objective parameters of the human olfactory system as they apply to the ability of wine drinkers to identify and characterize the extraordinary variety of compounds that contribute to a wine’s aroma. Similarly, economists specializing in the wine market have utilized the technique in their research. Some blinded trials among wine consumers have indicated that people can find nothing in a wine's aroma or taste to distinguish between ordinary and pricey brands. Academic research on blinded wine tastings have also cast doubt on the ability of professional tasters to judge wines consistently.

Mayacamas Vineyards is a California wine producer located in the Mt. Veeder AVA in the Mayacamas Mountains within the Napa Valley AVA, bordering the Sonoma Valley AVA. The estate is known for producing wine of a more traditional style than the Napa trends of recent years that emphasizes power, weight, high levels of alcohol and extravagance.

A Wine Olympics was organized by the French food and wine magazine Gault-Millau in 1979. A total of 330 wines from 33 countries were evaluated by 62 experts from ten nationalities. The 1976 Trefethen Vineyards Chardonnay from Napa Valley won the Chardonnay tasting and was judged best in the world. Gran Coronas Mas La Plana 1970 from Spain received first place in the Cabernet Sauvignon blend category. In the Pinot noir competition, the 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve from Oregon placed in the top ten. The 1975 HMR Pinot Noir from Paso Robles placed third. Tyrell Pinot Noir 1976 from Australia was selected for the Gault-Millau World Dozen and placed first.

The Académie du Vin was established in Paris in 1973 by Steven Spurrier as France's first private wine school. It is associated with the 1976 Judgement of Paris blind wine tasting which brought recognition to California wines.

Charles Rosen (scientist) artificial intelligence researcher

Charles Rosen was a pioneer in artificial intelligence and founder of SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center. He led the project that led to the development of Shakey the Robot, "who" now resides in a glass case at the Computer History Museum, in Mountain View, California.

George McCaffrey Taber is a journalist and entrepreneur.

Hewitt Crane American inventor

Hewitt D. Crane (1927–2008) was an American engineer best known for his pioneering work at SRI International on ERMA, for Bank of America, magnetic digital logic, neuristor logic, the development of an eye-movement tracking device, and a pen-input device for computers.

James L. Barrett was the owner of Chateau Montelena which won the Chardonnay competition of the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting. Barrett first purchased the winery with Ernie Hahn in 1972 from Lee Paschich, retaining him as a general manager, and hired Mike Grgich to be his winemaker. Barrett uprooted the Chasselas, Alicante Bouschet, and Carignane that had been previously planted and replanted his acres with premium Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery purchased outsource Chardonnay grapes while waiting for the Cabernet vines to be ready. In 1982, he turned over winemaker duties to his son Bo Barrett.

Christian Dubois-Millot, pen name Christian Millau, was a French food critic and author.

Sam Aaron was a wine merchant and co-founder, with his brother Jack, of Sherry-Lehmann Wines and Spirits. At the end of Prohibition in 1934, Jack Aaron purchased the liquor store in the old Louis Sherry building. He and Sam set about recreating the shop with Sam shifting the emphasis to wine, having been influenced by a meeting with the writer and wine importer, Frank Schoonmaker. In 1946, the shop moved across the street, where it remained until a second move in 2007. Aaron and his brother hired sometime actor and food enthusiast James Beard to run Alanberry's, the gourmet shop next door.

Orley Ashenfelter American economist

Orley Clark Ashenfelter is an American economist. He is a professor of economics at Princeton University and also the director of the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University. His areas of specialization include labor economics, econometrics, and law and economics.

Richard Emeric Quandt is a Guggenheim Fellowship winning economist who analyzed the results of the Judgment of Paris wine tasting event with Orley Ashenfelter.

A.W. Baxter was a Californian winemaker who founded Veedercrest Vineyards which competed in the Judgment of Paris wine tasting. The Veedercrest entrant was Baxter's first commercial vintage Chardonnay. He began buying grapes and making wine in the basement of his home in the Berkeley hills. He then acquired land on Mt. Veeder in Napa and planted a vineyard of Cabernet Sauvignon funded by selling limited partnership shares. Eventually the wine making volume outgrew his home and at the suggestion of one of the limited partners, C. R. Nelson, he moved his winemaking to a thick walled concrete building at the by then closed Shell Shell Development Companies' Emeryville research lab. The business failed when the winery's distributor dropped prices to work off excess inventory. His wife Gail Fleming was one of the 25 people who died in the 1991 Oakland firestorm

Lalou Bize-Leroy is a French businesswoman and winery owner in the Burgundy wine region. Bize-Leroy owns the wineries Domaine d'Auvenay and Domaine Leroy.

The Santa Cruz Mountains AVA is an American Viticultural Area centered on the Santa Cruz Mountains. It includes three counties in California: Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Mateo. Recognized as an AVA in 1981, the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation was among the first to be defined by its mountain topography. Based on elevation, it largely follows the fog line along the coast, extending down to 800 feet (240 m) in the east and 400 feet (120 m) in the west, and encompasses the highest ridgetops at 3000+ elevation.

Wine tasting Method of judging wine

Wine tasting is the sensory examination and evaluation of wine. While the practice of wine tasting is as ancient as its production, a more formalized methodology has slowly become established from the 14th century onwards. Modern, professional wine tasters use a constantly evolving specialized terminology which is used to describe the range of perceived flavors, aromas and general characteristics of a wine. More informal, recreational tasting may use similar terminology, usually involving a much less analytical process for a more general, personal appreciation.

The Judgment of Princeton was a wine tasting event held on 8 June 2012 during a conference of the American Association of Wine Economists held at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The purpose of this event was to compare, by a blind tasting, of several French wines against wines produced in New Jersey in order to gauge the quality and development of the New Jersey wine industry. Because New Jersey's wine industry is relatively young and small, it has received little attention in the world wine market. The state's wine production has experienced growth in recent years largely as a result of state legislators offering new opportunities for winery licensing and repealing Prohibition-era laws that have constrained the industry's development in past years. This event was modeled after a 1976 blind tasting event dubbed the "Judgment of Paris" in which French wines were compared to several wines produced in California when that state's wine industry was similarly young and developing. The New Jersey wine industry heralded the results and asserted that the rating of New Jersey wines by the blind tasting's judges was a victory for the state's wine industry.

Leland J. "Lee" Paschich and his wife, Helen, purchased the Chateau Montelena property from Yort Frank in 1968. In 1972 Paschich sold 90 percent of the property—retaining a 10-percent stake—to winemaker Jim Barrett and his partners, remaining onboard as General Manager.

References

  1. G. Taber The Judgment of Paris: California vs France pg 159–160 Simon & Schuster ISBN   0-7432-4751-5
  2. G. Taber The Judgment of Paris: California vs France pg 201 Simon & Schuster ISBN   0-7432-4751-5