The “Judgment of Paris” is undoubtedly the most famous wine tasting in history.
It was at that 1976 gathering in France that French judges – tasting blind – gave higher ratings to a number of American bottlings than to their French counterparts.
It’s the event that put American wine – and California wine, in particular – on the world wine map.
A few years ago, that tasting was chronicled in an entertaining movie called “Bottle Shock.” Jason Corcoran, a software engineer from the United Kingdom, saw the movie and thought it would be fun to collect all 20 wines that were featured at the “Judgment.”
Amazingly, he was able to locate and procure 19 of the 20 bottles fairly quickly. The only one missing: the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, which “won” the Paris tasting.
But earlier this month, after much Googling, Corcoran found one of the few remaining bottles of that famous wine. It was being offered by Spectrum Wine Auctions.
We don’t need to tell you the rest of the story: Corcoran won the auction. His winning bid: $11,325.
“I was prepared to pay a fair bit more,” he told Decanter.
Corcoran will have a wine cellar (capacity: 20,000 bottles) in a new home he is building, and he plans to display his 20 “Judgment” wines in that cellar.
