Business

The Judgment Of Paris Redux

May 8, 2015/REUTERS/Marko Djurica

Jack Kocsis Director of Commerce
Font Size:

Sommeliers, vintners and oenophiles all know May 24, 1976 as the legendary “Judgment of Paris.” On that date, California winemakers shocked the world by beating established French wines in a blind tasting. It was a total stunner. No one thought it could be done. That day can be considered a birthday of the Napa Valley region, as upstart winemakers began to crop up, armed with the knowledge that they could create a product as good or even better than the most well-respected wineries.

Forty years later, on May 24, 2016, it happened again. Mira, a relatively new winery from Napa, hosted a 40th anniversary tasting of seven of the top wines from both California and France. (Held in South Carolina, the event was nicknamed the “Judgment of Charleston“). They also included their own wine, a 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 11-judge panel included sommeliers, including several advanced sommeliers and a master sommelier, as well as wine experts. The tasting was blind — the judges had no idea what they were drinking, other than that it was from either the Napa Valley or Bordeaux. Rick Rubel, the Belmont Charleston Place wine director and Charleston Grill sommelier co-chaired the wine selection committee and oversaw the blind tasting.

The seven big players in the competition were serious, stately wines. Two of them — Screaming Eagle’s 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2010 Château Haut-Brion — were rated 100 points by esteemed wine critic Robert Parker in “Wine Advocate.” The other five were no slouches. There were two 99-point wines, two 96-point wines and one 93-95 point wine.

And then there was Mira’s entry, a 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Schweizer Vineyard, a small, family-owned vineyard in the Stags Leap District. For over 100 years, Schweizer Vineyard has been producing grapes for top-quality wines. That section of the world is one of the finest for making Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, at the Judgment of Paris in 1976, it was a Cabernet from that very region — made by Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars — that bested all the French juggernauts in the blind tasting.

Mira’s 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon actually marks the first time the Schweizer family has ever allowed a winery to designate Schweizer Vineyard label. They picked a good one to start. Against all odds, Mira Winery’s entry in the blind tasting finished third, behind only the Pétrus 2012 (a Merlot) and the 100-point Château Haut-Brion.

Mira, an underdog winery few have even heard of, finished ahead of the top names in the industry. Like its predecessor 40 years ago, the Judgment of Charleston may be remembered as an inflection point — the first time people started talking about Mira Winery as elite. It certainly won’t be the last.

Follow Jack on Twitter

Tags : wine
Jack Kocsis

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel