Paris Judgment Vineyard Steps into the Light
The vineyard that produced one of California’s most historic wines is finally getting its moment in the sun.
Winemaker Ashley Herzberg said she jumped up and down when she learned she could use the grapes to make wine under the Bacigalupi label.
Three wineries have spent decades touting their roles in the US wins in the 1976 Judgment of Paris Tasting – the event that changed the wine world forever. But the vineyards that produced the historic grapes have never shared in the acclaim.
Now, for the first time, a Chardonnay is being released that might change that, and finally bring recognition to the grapegrowers. It’s about time; there was even a Hollywood movie about the famous wine that resulted from this vineyard but it didn’t give any credit to the farmers.
The new wine is Bacigalupi “Renouveau” Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2018. The block of the Bacigalupis’ Goddard Ranch from which this wine comes is extraordinary, perhaps unique in the world. It has 50-year-old, own-rooted Chardonnay vines that produce about one ton to the acre – less than a third of the crop that even the most high-end Chardonnay vineyards usually produce. Grapegrowers simply do not maintain white-wine vineyards that produce so few grapes; they replant with younger vines.
The Bacigalupi family, who have been farming the vineyard from the beginning, haven’t replanted because the grapes made up about 40 percent of the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that beat top white wines from Burgundy in the 1976 blind tasting, in which a group of all French judges were shocked to learn that California could actually make would-class wine.
It’s hard to imagine now, but before that event, the prevailing opinion worldwide was that only France could make fine wine. Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon won the competition, stunning the French judges and making everyone realize that New World wines are in the same league, and can even be superior.
