California Wine Makers Again Top French Rivals

A few small California wineries shocked the international wine establishment a decade ago by taking top honors in a French-American wine competition in Paris. The upstarts did it again Tuesday.

Connoisseur Steven Spurrier, who sponsored the 1976 competition at L’Academie du Vin in Paris, organized the rematch at the French Culinary Institute here to see how those early 1970s wines had fared.

California wines took first and second place in the rematch, while France’s highly touted Haut-Brion finished last among the nine wines sampled.

In a tasting of a dozen more recent vintages, California wines took the top four places.

“It’s very frustrating to say that America won again,” said George Lepre, chief sommelier at the Ritz Hotel in Paris and the only French judge in the 10th anniversary competition.

Lepre and other wine experts at the tasting said they had seen improvements in both regions’ wines in the last decade. French and American wines, the experts agreed, have become more alike.

The 1976 competition made French wine makers realize that California wines were “softer, richer, more accessible, made with more determination,” said Paul Draper, wine master at Ridge Vineyards of Cupertino, Calif.

The French reduced the amount of bitter tannins to make their wines more like those from California, said Draper and others.

The Californians, meanwhile, took greater notice of the classic French wines and reduced the alcohol content of their wines to give them more “elegance, charm,” said Bernard Portet, the French wine master at the Napa Valley’s Clos du Val Wine Co.

Portet and Draper tasted on the sidelines Tuesday as a panel of experts, mostly American wine merchants and columnists, judged.

The first round recreated the 1976 competition, when Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars won. This time, however, the winner was another California wine--a Clos du Val 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Next was Ridge Vineyards “Monte Bello” 1971 Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Chateau Montrose 1970, Chateau Leoville-las-Csaes 1971, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 1970, Stag’s Leap 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, Heitz Cellars “Martha’s Vineyard” 1970 Cabernet Sauvignon, Chateau Mayacamas 1971 Cabernet Sauvignon and Chateau Haut-Brion 1970.

With the exception of Chateau Mayacamas, all wines with Chateau in their names are French and all others are Californian.