Celebrating 50 years of great American wines

FIFTY years ago, the perception of American wines around the world changed forever.

It was in Paris on May 24, 1976, when nine French judges assembled at the Intercontinental Hotel for a blind tasting of 20 wines, six reds and six whites from California, four reds from Bordeaux and four whites from Burgundy.

It was not expected to be a fair fight. The judges, and everyone else, assumed the California wines were inferior and the French would come out on top.

Instead, a stunning consensus revealed the winners to be a 1973 chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and a 1973 cabernet sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, both in Napa Valley.

The shocking verdict gave the California wine industry a burst of confidence, and marketers ammunition to sell the wines all over the world.

In the decades since, the story of the Judgment of Paris has been told and retold. The tasting has been re-enacted countless times at every anniversary, while books have been written and movies made.

This year, I will leave the re-enactments and the retellings to others. I want to focus, not on that now legendary tasting, but on the truly remarkable achievements of the American wine industry in the 50 years since the Judgment of Paris.

What American wine has accomplished in those few decades – a blip in the agricultural timeline that governs wine – is unrivalled.

American wine is going through turbulent times right now.

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Sales are down, businesses are closing and vines are being uprooted. US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have cratered export markets, public health warnings have caused consumers to reconsider their drinking decisions and the climate crisis has wreaked havoc.

Despite these obstacles, it is inspiring to examine the bigger picture of how far American wine has come in such a short time.

In the early 1970s, Napa Valley was nothing like the luxury wine destination that now draws people from around the world.

Back then, when the winning wines were made, wine grapes were among many other crops. Napa also grew more zinfandel and petite sirah than the now-dominant cabernet sauvignon.

The Santa Barbara wine region was barely stirring, the Willamette Valley in Oregon was just getting started and early pioneers were just beginning to plant the Anderson Valley in Mendocino.

The West Sonoma Coast, which today makes some of America’s most exciting wines, did not exist as a wine region.

Nonetheless, America was already capable of making great wines.

Magnificent bottles had been produced by historic estates, including Mount Eden and Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Hanzell Vineyards in the Sonoma Valley and Inglenook and Beaulieu in Napa Valley.

A 1959 Inglenook cabernet sauvignon is one of the greatest wines I have ever tasted.

These were the exceptions. Prohibition had effectively killed a blossoming industry, and with the Act’s repeal, much of the wine being made was cheap and fortified, such as Thunderbird – intended for rapid inebriation – or jug wines sold with names derived from famous European regions, such as Hearty Burgundy, Mountain Rhine and California Champagne.

Not until 1967, in fact, did California produce more table wine than fortified wine.

But then, the rocket took off. Visionary producers such as Robert Mondavi in Napa Valley, Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat in Santa Barbara and David Lett in the Willamette Valley of Oregon saw the potential for greatness in their regions.

They talked the talk and made the wines to back it up.

Growth spurt in late 1970s and 1980s

The late 1970s and 1980s were sort of an adolescent growth spurt in which the American industry began to take shape.

Slowly, what had been insular, local growing regions in America and around the world, began to communicate. American producers began to travel, examine methods and equipment, learn from other regions and take that knowledge home.

Growing pains were obvious. It took time to understand that what worked in Burgundy or Bordeaux was not necessarily the best approach in California, or what worked in California was not appropriate for Oregon.

Some wines were made with too much oak or showed too much alcohol. An entire era of over-the-top fruit bombs, peaking around the time of the 30th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, proved to be a false start.

Many American producers never went down that path. Others, such as Adam Tolmach of the Ojai Vineyard and Wells Guthrie of Copain, had conversion experiences and backed down to make more balanced, restrained and classical wines.

Second and third-generation winemakers took over family estates or started their own.

Their frames of references were not the prune and apple orchards of 1970s-era Napa and Sonoma but the wines of the world, from Sicily to South Africa. Their worldliness and understanding introduced a new dimension of diversity and refinement to American wine.

At the same time, American wine consumption was growing rapidly. By 2013, the US had become the world’s leading wine-consuming nation, although it still trails badly in per capita wine drinking, far behind European countries and just behind Canada.

Nonetheless, the rich production of the American wine industry gleams for all to see.

At the highest level are wines that have achieved distinctive beauty, complexity and deliciousness, that can touch the emotions in profound ways.

Think of Ridge Monte Bello cabernet sauvignons from the Santa Cruz Mountains and the pinot noirs and chardonnays of Littorai on the West Sonoma Coast.

Keep in mind, too, the very different but equally brilliant chardonnays and pinot noirs from Willamette Valley producers such as Walter Scott, Domaine Drouhin, Antica Terra, Kelley Fox Wines and 00 Wines.

Napa Valley makes magnificent wines in many styles, including the classic cabernets of Cathy Corison, the jewel-like wines of Bond and Harlan Estate, the more down-to-earth expressions of producers such as Matthiasson and Frog’s Leap or revivals and new projects such as Ink Grade and Pilcrow.

These producers are ambitious and strive for world-class wines, some earning world-class prices.

Affordable and accessible wines

However, America has made great strides in making more affordable wines that are both gorgeous and accessible.

Pax Mahle in Sebastopol makes wonderful syrahs and chenin blancs that can certainly age and evolve, but are also simply delicious and joyful to drink.

Equally important, he has played a mentorship role for a dozen or more excellent younger winemakers who have started making their own mark on the world.

Producers such as Kenny Likitprakong of Hobo Wine Company and Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars have succeeded at making delicious, relatively inexpensive wines, which is admittedly a challenge, as California is an expensive place to do business. We need more like them.

Fascinating producers stretch up and down the West Coast, including Angela Osborne – who makes wonderful grenache wines in Santa Barbara County – of A Tribute to Grace.

In addition, Mikey and Gina Giugni of Scar of the Sea and Lady of the Sunshine on the San Luis Obispo Coast are part of an energetic young set bringing new life to the region.

Troon Vineyard in the Applegate Valley in southern Oregon makes terrific, idiosyncratic wines as well, as do Nate Ready of Hiyu Wine Farm in the Columbia River Gorge and Christophe Baron of Cayuse in the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater in the Walla Walla Valley.

Far from the West Coast, the Finger Lakes of New York make the nation’s best rieslings and a thoroughly distinctive style of cool-climate cabernet francs.

Virginia is coming of age, finding multiple identities for its wine, depending on what part of the state you explore.

And in Vermont, Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber of La Garagista proved through sensitive, creative work that great wine could be made there, ushering in a re-evaluation of the potential of hybrid grapes.

Not hard to find great wine

Wherever you travel in the US, it is not hard to find great wine being made. This is a tribute to the hard work and vision of an industry that has taken its fair share of lumps.

But whatever the obstacles are now, American wine is an astonishing achievement. It deserves, at this moment, a universal pat on the back.

And what of those wines that took part in the tasting 50 years ago? At the time, some rationalised that the young American wines were forward and obvious, and simply showed better than their French competition, which needed more time to evolve.

In the past few months, I have had a chance to taste two of the American wines that competed back then; the Ridge Monte Bello 1971, which finished fifth among the six red wines, and the 1973 cabernet sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Cellars, which was No 1 among the reds.

The Ridge was a bit soft and restrained at first, befitting a 55-year-old bottle, with lovely floral aromas. With a little air in the glass, it tightened up, showing its beauty and complexity.

The Stag’s Leap, too, was remarkably intact, its colour turning a soft brick red at the edges. Its taste is gorgeous and complex, supple yet tense and structured.

These were great wines then, and they are great now. Today, they have a lot more company. NYTIMES