My first brush with what are known as “New World wines” came during a trip to a convention in Australia in the early 1980s. I was travelling with several fellow wine enthusiasts, and that meant finding local wines became as important as attending the event itself.
Australia wasn’t yet the wine powerhouse we know today, so we approached these “Aussie Grogs” with curiosity and modest expectations. Some bottles were enjoyable, others less so. A few had a distinctly soapy character that made us wonder whether the winery had accidentally dropped in a splash of dishwashing liquid.
To be fair, despite our curiosity, we arrived with preconceived ideas. Back then, serious wine meant Europe — and more specifically France, with a side order of Italy. Bordeaux was Bordeaux, Burgundy was Burgundy, Amarone and Barolo were exactly that and nothing else, while the rest of the world was still trying to secure a seat at important tasting tables.
Enter the “Judgment of Paris”, held on 24 May 1976. Intended as a pleasant celebration of the United States Bicentennial, it became one of the biggest wine world shocks ever since somebody decided grapes were better fermented than eaten. Organised in Paris by British wine merchant Steven Spurrier and his American colleague Patricia Gallagher, the event brought together a panel of respected French wine experts for a blind tasting of top French wines against challengers from California.
Few expected much drama. France and Italy were widely regarded as the undisputed homes of the world’s finest wines. Even Spurrier himself, who made his living selling French wines, assumed the French entries would prevail comfortably. They did not. When the scores were revealed, Napa Valley wines had beaten notable French wines in both the Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon categories. In addition to raising the collective French eyebrow, the result also landed in the wine trade like a champagne cork fired in a library.
But what it really did was open the door for New World wine regions around the globe. The decades that followed saw an explosion of confidence throughout the New World. Investment increased, oenological knowledge spread, and viticultural practices improved. Regions once viewed as curious outsiders began producing wines capable of standing alongside the world’s best. California rapidly capitalised on its success in Paris. Australia, meanwhile, went from the country that had served me those questionable glasses in the early 1980s to one producing internationally acclaimed Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
New Zealand transformed Sauvignon Blanc into a global phenomenon, spreading its fame far beyond the iconic French labels of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. Argentina found international recognition through Malbec, one of my personal favourites, while Chile and South Africa steadily earned their places on some of the world’s better wine lists. Even established Old World producers such as Spain, and particularly Portugal, benefited from the broader horizons of wine lovers, sommeliers and F&B professionals.
What I particularly like about the Judgement of Paris is that it wasn’t a victory of California over France, but a welcome triumph for wine lovers everywhere. France remains one of the world’s greatest wine-producing nations, but the event helped transform wine from an exclusive European club into a genuinely international conversation. It encouraged people to judge what was in the glass rather than where the label was printed.
And that can only be considered a very good thing indeed.
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