Double win for Napa wines

In the last couple of weeks we have been reading and hearing about movies that are based on the Paris bicentennial blind tasting in 1976, which even before a foot of film has been shot has caused a reel’s worth of discussion.
Although the wineries involved are in Napa County, these cinema projects are of interest to Sonoma Valley because one of them, “Bottle Shock,” is being produced by Brenda Lhormer of the popular and successful Sonoma Valley Film Festival, and will feature many Sonoma locations and use locals as extras. The script for the other movie, “Judgment of Paris,” based on the book of the same name, is being written by screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen (“The Karate Kid,” “A Walk in the Clouds”), who divides his time between his Sonoma home and vineyards and New York.
Here is the factual historic background. Kathleen and I
first wrote about the Napa winery triumphs in 1999 in our first edition of Napa Valley, Land of Golden Vines.
There were two Napa Valley wineries with vintages entered in the Paris tasting in 1976, which was considered quite presumptuous because they were competing against the best of French and other European wines, reputedly in a class by themselves. The tastings were “blind” since there was no way wines could be identified except by taste. The judges, chosen by the French, were considered outstanding European experts. The Napa wineries were Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars located on the Silverado Trail north of the City of Napa, and Chateau Montelena on Tubbs Lane north of Calistoga.
Established in 1882 when Alfred Tubbs planted 254 acres of vines, by 1896 Chateau Montelena was the seventh largest winery in Napa County. The winery itself was carved from the north side of the hill, forming its own cave with walls 3 to 12 feet thick. One later owner added a moat which forms a fish and bird sanctuary. However, as a winery it had been neglected for 50 years. James Barrett purchased the Chateau in 1972 and immediately installed the latest in winemaking equipment and began replanting. He hired Mike Grgich, chief enologist for Robert Mondavi, as winemaker and vineyardist. Barrett was also involved in the winemaking.
It was from his second vintage that Barrett audaciously shipped the Montelena 1973 Chardonnay to the Paris tasting.
Also on its way to Paris in 1976 was Cabernet Sauvignon in the red category produced by Stag’s Leap Cellars, named for a translation of Indian words for a rock formation on the hills east of the winery. Warren Winiarski, whose family name means “winemaker’s son” in Polish, was a lecturer at the University of Chicago in 1964 when he and his wife, Barbara, decided to leave the academic life and become vineyardists in California.
After stints as an apprentice at Souverain Winery and then assistant winemaker for Robert Mondavi (who seemed to be a promoter of many new entries in the Napa Valley wine business), Winiarski felt he had absorbed enough knowledge to purchase 44 acres alongside the Silverado Trail. The Winiarskis, including Barbara and the children, personally planted the vines. Eventually the winery would expand to 205 acres. From the start Warren was his own winemaker.
May 24, 1976, was the day that changed the wine world.
When the French judges were tasting the reds, one of them commented: “At last a good French wine.” When they unveiled the label on the Cabernet Sauvignon as “the best of the reds,” they were startled to read “Stag’s Leap.” Then the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay was judged “the best of the whites.” It was the worst day for the French since Hitler cracked the Maginot Line in 1940. A jubilant Jim Barrett exulted “Not bad for kids from the sticks.”
The following year Mike Grgich left to inaugurate his own winery, Grgich Hill Cellars. Jim Barrett became the sole winemaker and the next two generations of Barretts assumed hands-on roles at Chateau Montelena. Stag’s Leap’s success stimulated vineyard planting and new wineries in its neighborhood, which is now the Stag’s Leap Appellation.
These twin victories propelled Napa County into world recognition as a premier wine region. Within the next 20 years, sales of Napa Valley wines went from $150 million to $2.5 billion. This recognition rubbed off on Sonoma Valley since both areas were part of the North Bay wine country. After all nature does not recognize county boundaries.
These were not the only west coast winery triumphs over French elites. Perhaps inspired by the Napa County successes, a U. C. Davis graduate, David Lett, who had founded Eyrie Vineyards in Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 1966, entered his 1975 Pinot Noir in another Paris blind tasting in 1979 pitted against the best Burgundians. His barrel finished third by fractions of points. The upset French had a beret-full of excuses—inexperienced judges and claimed absence of some of the best wines–and demanded a re-match. So in January, 1980, Lett sent more Pinot from the same barrel.
This time the Eyrie Vineyards entry moved up to second place, losing by a razor-thin .2 of a point, well ahead of number three. And here’s the Sonoma Valley angle. The winning wine—in a virtual tie—came from Sonoma’s French sister city, Chambolle-Musigny. Joseph Drouhin, the French wine mogul who had argued for the re-match, was so impressed he purchased 180 acres in Willamette Valley and set up Domaine Drouhin Oregon. We first told this story in 1999 in our Northwest Wine Country, Wine’s New Frontier now in its third edition.
We look forward to the movies.
Gerald Hill is co-author with his wife, Kathleen Thompson Hill, of six books on regions of the west coast, Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley, Santa Barbara and the Central Coast, Monterey and Carmel, Victoria and Vancouver Island, and Northwest Wine Country and several other books and numerous articles. In addition to his Hill on History columns, his program Hill on History is broadcast on KSVY-FM, 91.3 at 2 p. m. on Tuesdays.
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