Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986

The Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986 was conducted on the tenth anniversary of the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 in which leading French wine experts blind tasted and ranked California wines number one in both red and white categories and higher than all their competitors from the best vineyards in France. This anniversary competition provided an opportunity to evaluate how the Cabernet Sauvignons had aged; Chardonnays were not included in the belief that they would be past their prime.

Four of the judges were experts from the Wine Spectator and two were outsiders. All tasted the wines blind. Ranking first was the 1970 Heitz Wine Cellars Martha’s Vineyard. It was followed by the 1971 Mayacamas Vineyards, the 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, the 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, and the 1971 Clos Du Val Winery. Ranked at number six was the 1971 Château Montrose, followed by the 1970 Château Mouton-Rothschild, the 1971 Château Leoville Las Cases, the 1969 Freemark Abbey Winery, and the 1970 Château Haut-Brion.

Results

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" ^*.

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 French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986, California wines also increased their rankings. In The Wine Rematch of the Century, conduced on the 30th anniversary of the historic Paris event, California wines raised their rankings even more, winning the top five of ten rankings. In short, the California wines aged much better than their Bordeaux competitors.

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

Wine tasting

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Results

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