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| Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine | 
 enlarge | Author: George M. Taber
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $6.71
You Save: $9.29 (58%)
New (31) Used (17) from $5.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  51 reviews
Sales Rank: 8003
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1
ISBN: 0743297326
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.22094436109047
EAN: 9780743297325
ASIN: 0743297326
Publication Date: November 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Just started this great book November 10, 2005
I will only point out that George M Taber is an excellent writer and as I am 90 pages into this wonderful book, I am compelled to rate this book 5 stars. I cannot wait to get home and finish the story!
 Good overview of the California wine industry October 21, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I found this a highly entertaining account of the growth of the California wine industry from the early 60's through the 90's. Taber writes in a breezy fashion without to much technical jargon. There are actually only about two chapters on the big tasteoff. Half the book is a prequel to how the featured winemakers arrived in wine country. Nice close about globalization that was fairly interesting. It just makes me want to buy wine only from independent producers.
A Must Read for Wine Enthusiasts September 30, 2005
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
George Taber has done a great job chronicling the early stages of the ascension of premium wine in America and the importance of the 1976 tastings, which mark the beginning of the democratization of global wine. Well written and entertaining, he tells an important story that remarkably received little attention at the time considering the event's importance. In fact, Taber was the only journalist who attended the tasting!
Well worth reading and a must addition to the collection of any one who loves and cares about wine.
A Non-Judgemental Treatise September 24, 2005
19 out of 20 found this review helpful
Centered on a small, poorly attended (only one journalist present) wine tasting event in 1976-the famous Paris tasting organized by the English bon vivant and Paris wine retailer/writer Steven Spurrier-George Taber tells the whole story first-hand (he was the journalist present!). In the process of giving all the details of the wines, the jurors, and the scores, the book actually covers the universe of contemporary wine issues, from the winemakers, both French and Californian, to the issues of wine economics and globalization.
Taber begins the story with fascinating mini-biographies of the winemakers and winery owners (such as Mike Grgich, Warren Winiarski, and Jim Barrett), discusses the trials and tribulations of making their first wines, outlines each of the competition wines (California and French) in interesting detail and context, then, after describing the competition itself, follows the discussion with the chronology of the press and public reaction from the U.S. and abroad (mostly French-they were pissed).
Positing the shattering of French wine hegemony by this `momentous' wine event, he then points the reader to the subsequent enabling of the `Globalisation of Wine', and in the remainder of the book, takes a number of diversions that relate to this hotly discussed topic, including a chapter on six recent International Wine Stars, and others that give a (relatively) non-judgemental perspective on contemporary wine trends, wine economics, wine styles, and more wine personalities.
Very enjoyable and well written, it's a must read for the wine enthusiast, and for anyone interested in a succinct summary of many (non-technical) contemporary wine issues.
An Entrepreneurial Success Story and the folly of arrogance September 22, 2005
16 out of 21 found this review helpful
This book should also be listed under business books --how to build a business. It could also be a case study about the danger of arrogance in business.
Regarding building a business---what I enjoyed most was the entrepreneurial story of early stage businesses working to create great products and fighting to get their products distributed, known to their market channels and taken seriously by consumers. Many smart business people do everything right and never make it because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then they watch some dummy become a winner because of luck. Here the good guys also have a really big and unexpected bit of luck.
This story is not about a high-tech company that created the next new thing. This is about an agricultural product that's been made for thousands of years. This is about how people who really love something can make an old thing new, exciting and great. It is said that if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door. That's bull. If the world doesn't know about your new, new thing only grass will grow in that path to your door. The 1976 Paris tasting alerted the world to the quality of California wines and showed the path to the producers' doors.
This book also tells how that tasting emboldened other regions of the world to invest in marketing their wines to the world. And the book mentions how Acker Merrall & Condit (full disclosure requires me to say it's my favorite NYC wine store) sold out of those California wines the day of Taber's Time Magazine story. In 1976 Acker was (and it still is) a store that devotes shelf space to unknown, but exceptional wine values. With this book's mention of Acker, as the early NYC retail distribution channel for California wines, a retailer has had its own bit of luck out of the story of the 1976 Paris tasting.
Regarding arrogance in business--the French do not want to face it, but just as Japan now makes better cars and offers better service than the once great US manufacturers, the rest of the world's wine producers are increasing sales of their wines while French wine sales are declining. A few of the great French wines will continue to demand crazy prices because of limited production, snobishness and the madness of crowds, but the French are not sharing in the enormous increase in the world's sale and consumption of wine. 1976 was the bicentennial of our US revolution against the UK. Perhaps it is France that now needs a revolution against arrogance, but that's probably too much to expect from the people that created the word chauvinism.
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