The revenge of Paris

In the history and lore of the Napa Valley as a wine lover’s Xanadu, the Paris Tasting of 1976 has taken on mythical status.

At that event, judges in a blind tasting chose Napa wines over those from Bordeaux, stunning even the judges and changing perceptions about the potential for wine from California in general and Napa Valley in particular.

Of course, things are not nearly so simple. It was through the hard work of many — including the winemakers whose work won plaudits at the Paris Tasting, as well as Brother Timothy, Robert Mondavi and hundreds of others — that the Napa Valley reached its potential and became the wine lover’s Xanadu we know today.

This week, 32 years after the Paris Tasting, we have even more meaningful notice that Napa Valley has become the equal of any wine region in the world: Calistoga’s Chateau Montelena, whose chardonnay outperformed the French whites in ‘76, has been acquired by a famous French wine estate. There could be no more significant acknowledgment of the shift in the last 30 years.

As for the other big Napa Valley winner in the Paris Tasting, it went international last year. Warren Winiarski sold his Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars to the Antinori family of Italy and Ste. Michelle Estates (of Washington state) last year.

Coincidentally, this weekend sees the Calistoga debut of a new film, “Bottle Shock,” starring Chris Pine, Alan Rickman and Bill Pullman, that will serve to further mythologize the Paris Tasting. The film will be released for general distribution in August, and is one of two entries in the Paris Tasting field. Another is still in production.

Clearly, Napa Valley is no longer a winery upstart.

Yet we risk losing something when the great houses of the Napa Valley fall into corporate or distant hands. Over the last 30 years, we have seen waves of corporate buying and selling. Some corporations clearly misapprehend this strange business that is dependent on the weather for the quality of the product, and then later requires laying down and storing the best stuff for a few years before moving it to market.

Chateau Montelena’s buyer, Chateau Cos d’Estournel, knows the wine business and ought to make a fine citizen in Napa Valley’s wine world.

But with Jim and Bo Barrett’s departure from Chateau Montelena, the winery they brought to greatness, Napa Valley sees another founding family head for the history books.

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