The French Surrender (no surprise) At Wine (gasp!)
What's a great pairing with French wine? Chicken of course:
In other words, French wine makers are too chicken to face another blind tasting against American wine. This means the French wine judges will know beforehand whether the wine they're evaluating is French or not - an obviously worthless endeavor when the entire point of the tasting being commemorated was to remove this exact bias.
Tom Wark characterizes it as:
That description seems rather apt. I don't think anything has crystalized the French wine industry's crisis of confidence quite so perfectly. Before the original 1976 tasting, French wine makers were almost contemptuously confident. Now, after all the excuses are said and done, French wine is seen cringing and ducking for cover in the face of the exact same competition.
The last 30 years have not been kind to French wine. Can their industry possibly survive another 30 years of the same?
... the transatlantic celebration scheduled for May 24 commemorates the 30th anniversary of the of the 1976 Paris Tasting that rocked the world, when French wine experts (gasp!) chose Californian wines above the best Bordeaux and Burgundy in a blind tasting.
In the re-creation, "it has now been decided that ... the wines will be presented semi-blind –- the panels will know which region but not which wine they are tasting."
In other words, French wine makers are too chicken to face another blind tasting against American wine. This means the French wine judges will know beforehand whether the wine they're evaluating is French or not - an obviously worthless endeavor when the entire point of the tasting being commemorated was to remove this exact bias.
Tom Wark characterizes it as:
...a development which is at once pitiful while also indicative of the crisis that exists in the French wine industry.
That description seems rather apt. I don't think anything has crystalized the French wine industry's crisis of confidence quite so perfectly. Before the original 1976 tasting, French wine makers were almost contemptuously confident. Now, after all the excuses are said and done, French wine is seen cringing and ducking for cover in the face of the exact same competition.
The last 30 years have not been kind to French wine. Can their industry possibly survive another 30 years of the same?
Posted by Doug Williams on
Monday May 1, 2006 at 9:38pm
The rest of France's wine industry will have to compete with 2 Buck Chuck, just like everyone else. Everyone who drinks wine should try to go 6 months or a year without drinking any French wine, then drink as much as you want. It's fun restricting yourself to new regions and new wines and afterward it's equally fun to return to your old friends.
The biggest challenge I have is trying to stay our of a rut and continually challenge my pallet.
Wow, did I stray off the subject there!