Wine Olympics
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A Wine Olympics was organized by the French food and wine magazine GaultMillau in 1979, three years after the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 in which leading French experts blind tasted and ranked two California wines (a red and a white) higher than all of their French competitors.
In the Wine Olympics, a total of 330 wines from 33 countries were evaluated by 62 experts from ten nationalities. France dominated in both the number of wine entries and in the number of judges.
The 1976 Trefethen Vineyards Chardonnay from the 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 important Cabernet blend category. In the Pinot Noir competition, the 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve from Oregon won first place. Tyrell Pinot Noir 1976 from Australia was selected for the "Gault Milleau World Dozen."
These and many other wine competitions have demonstrated that top quality wines can be produced in the New World and have stimulated the globalization of wine.
[edit] See also
The following 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 12 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).
- Paris Wine Tasting of 1976
- French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986
- Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986
- New York Wine Tasting of 1973
- San Diego Wine Tasting of 1975
- San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978
- Great Chardonnay Showdown
- Ottawa Wine Tasting of 1981
- Grand European Jury Wine Tasting of 1997
- Halekulani Wine Tasting of 2000
- Berlin Wine Tasting of 2004
- Ottawa Wine Tasting of 2005
- St. Catharines Wine Tasting of 2005
- Tokyo Wine Tasting of 2006
- The Wine Rematch of the Century (Judgement of Paris 30th Anniversary Tasting)
[edit] Sources
- Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005
- Eyrie Vineyards and Winery
- You Know this Grape if You drink Cava
- California vs. Australia