Judgement + 50 – a Historic Tasting

Introduction

Fifty years ago, the wine world was rocked by a blind tasting held in Paris, during which unknown Napa Valley wines outscored top French wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. No other event and its ensuing media explosion has catalyzed wine production as much, creating the global industry of today. The story has been memorialized in the book Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine by George M. Taber, and the 2008 movie Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman and Chris Pine.

IWFS is celebrating the 50th anniversary of this “Judgement of Paris” by organising an international blind wine tasting which pits French classics against challengers from around the world. Hundreds of participants will be involved. No other wine society in the world is able to organize such an event on a global scale.

Who wins – France or somewhere else? You decide!

Event Description

Like 50 years ago, IWFS’s Judgement + 50 will taste blind two flights of wine - Chardonnays and Bordeaux Blends. To reflect today’s broad wine world, we will expand beyond a California vs France head-to-head tasting to include entries from France, North and South America, South Africa and Oceania. The wine line-up is as follows:

CHARDONNAY

Domaine Leflaive, Macon Verze 2022

Louis Jadot Puligny Montrachet 2022

Restless River, Ava Marie Chardonnay, Walker Bay 2020

Kumeu River, Coddington 2024

Veedercrest Wines Chardonnay tbc

Concha y Toro Amelia Limari Chardonnay, Chile 2023

BORDEAUX BLEND REDS

Domaine de Chevalier Cru Classe, Pessac Leognan 2017

Chateau Langoa Barton, St Julien 2018

Kanonkop, Paul Sauer, Stellenbosch 2019

Shafer Vineyards TD-9, Napa Valley 2019

Nicholas Catena Zapata, Mendoza 2020

Moss Wood, Margaret River 2021

IWFS Capital Branch and London Branch are jointly holding a tasting event in London. We are coordinating with other branches around the world in a series of local/regional tasting events during the week leading up to and including Saturday 23rd May.

The results will be collated and tabulated for media announcements on Sunday 24th May.

Join us to be part of a historic and unprecedented tasting event!