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French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986

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The French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986 was conducted on the tenth anniversary of the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 in which leading French judges blind tasted and ranked a California red higher than all its prestigious Bordeaux competitors. Steven Spurrier, who organized the latter wine competition, assisted in the anniversary tasting.

Eight judges blind tasted nine of the ten wines evaluated. White wines were not evaluated in the belief that they were past their prime. The evaluation resulted in the following ranking.

Rank Wine

The results for the California wines are impressive, especially given the fact that most of the wineries from which they came had been making wine for only a few decades: two of the wineries were only four years old and producing their first vintages. Their competitors all came from chateaux that had acquired prestige high enough by 1855 to have been classified in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 as being among the very best in Bordeaux.

In addition, three of the four Bordeaux wines in the competition were from the 1970 vintage, identified by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux as among the four best vintages in the past 45 years or more. The fourth Bordeaux was a 1971, described by the Conseil as "very good" [1].

It has been argued that that Bordeaux wines don’t achieve their full potential for years. However, as these results indicate, California wines increased their rankings over time. Similarly, in another blind tasting by experts, the Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986, California wines also increased their rankings. In short, the California wines aged better than their Bordeaux competitors. In The Wine Rematch of the Century, conducted on the 30th anniversary of the Paris competition, California wines additionally increased their rankings, winning the top five ranks of the ten ranks.

[edit] See also

The above wine competitions are unique and highly significant because (1) all tasting was done blind and (2) the results were listed in rank order from highest to lowest. For example, if twelve wines were evaluated, they were ranked from one (the highest) to 12 (the lowest). There were no multiple winners except in the case of multiple categories (for example one red wine winner and one white wine winner). For more, see wine competitions.

[edit] Source

  • Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
  • French Wine Producers and Consumers
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