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.
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 and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines. A Napa 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.
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a winery founded by Warren Winiarski in 1970 and based in the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, California.
Chateau Montelena is a Napa Valley winery most famous for winning the white wine section of the historic "Judgment of Paris" wine competition. Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay was in competition with nine other wines from France and California under blind tasting. All 11 judges awarded their top scores to either the Chardonnays from Chateau Montelena or Chalone Winery, another California wine producer. A fictionalized version of Chateau Montelena's historic victory was featured in the 2008 film Bottle Shock.
Chalone Vineyard is located in the Chalone AVA south of San Francisco, California, United States, on an unusual geological formation called the Gavilan benchland. The soil is rich in limestone and calcium carbonate and also contains a significant amount of decomposed granite. This soil has a mineral composition similar to the Champagne region of France. Chalone is situated in an arid chaparral environment, in which temperatures can vary as much as 50°F in one day. The climate is very dry, only 12 to 14 inches (360 mm) of rain fall per year. These factors combine to create a unique terroir, the signature profile of a wine growing region.
Freemark Abbey Winery, located between St. Helena and Calistoga in California's Napa Valley, traces its roots to 1886. Today, Freemark Abbey produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as very limited production wines, such as Viognier, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc. Depending on conditions, the winery sometimes makes a late harvest Riesling known as "Edelwein Gold".
Sterling Vineyards is a winery near Calistoga, California, owned by Treasury Wine Estates. The winery achieved international recognition when its wine won first place in the Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981.
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state. California would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world if it were an independent nation.
Warren Winiarski is a Napa Valley winemaker and the founder and former proprietor of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.
Miljenko "Mike" Grgich was a Croatian-American winemaker in California. He is notable for being the winemaker behind the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that bested several white Burgundy wines in the wine tasting event that became known as the Judgement of Paris. In recognition of his contributions to the wine industry, Grgich was inducted into the Culinary Institute of America's Vintner's Hall of Fame on March 7, 2008. The tribute came at the same time that Grgich was celebrating his 50th vintage of winemaking in the Napa Valley.
Grgich Hills Estate is a winery located in Rutherford, California in the heart of the Napa Valley. The winery changed its name in 2006 when it first began producing only "estate grown" wines made from grapes grown exclusively in vineyards owned by the winery. The Napa Valley Wine Train has a passenger stop located at Grgich Hills Estate. Grgich Hills' vineyards are certified organic and biodynamic and it converted to solar energy in 2006.
Ridge Vineyards is a California winery specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay wines. Ridge produces wine at two winery locations in northern California. The original winery facilities are located at an elevation of 2,300 feet on Monte Bello Ridge in unincorporated Santa Clara County in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, south of Los Altos, California and west of Cupertino, California. The other Ridge winery facilities are at Lytton Springs in the Dry Creek Valley AVA of Sonoma County. Ridge Vineyard's 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon gained prominence for its fifth-place finish in the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" wine tasting.
Heitz Cellar is a California wine producer located within Napa Valley east of the town of St. Helena. An early modern era Napa Valley presence and pioneering exponent of French oak, the estate enjoys a historical renown with the success of its Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, and has also been described as a "master of Grignolino".
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 contestant 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's Pinot Noir 1976 from Australia was selected for the Gault-Millau World Dozen and placed first.
A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages, categories, and/or brands of wine. Wine competitions generally use blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the judges.
Maison Joseph Drouhin is a French wine producer based in Burgundy that was founded in 1880. The estate owns vineyards in Chablis, the Côte de Nuits, Côte de Beaune and Côte Chalonnaise, as well as in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Drouhin is also one of the major négociants of Burgundy, and produces wines made from purchased grapes grown in different parts of Burgundy. Today both Maison Joseph Drouhin and Domaine Drouhin Oregon are owned and operated by the great-grandchildren of Joseph Drouhin.
James L. Barrett was an American businessman and the owner of Chateau Montelena which won the Chardonnay competition of the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting.
Bo Barrett is the current winemaker of Chateau Montelena. He is the son of Jim Barrett, under whose ownership the 1973 vintage Chardonnay won first place among white wines at the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine tasting. Barrett was an assistant during that vintage, working under the tutelage of Mike Grgich. He is married to Heidi Barrett, former wine maker at Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards.
Bottle Shock is a 2008 American comedy-drama film based on the 1976 wine competition termed the "Judgment of Paris", when California wine defeated French wine in a blind taste test. It stars Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman and is directed by Randall Miller, who wrote the screenplay along with Jody Savin and Ross Schwartz. It premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
The Zinfandel Advocates and Producers(ZAP) is a consortium of over 200 winemakers and grape growers, as well as thousands of consumers, with the purpose of advocating, preserving, and educating about the Zinfandel grape. Started in 1991, the organizational structure of combining wine enthusiasts with wine producers served as a successful template for other wine-related organizations, such as the Rhone Rangers. ZAP is reported to be one of the largest consumer-based wine advocacy groups in the world.
