Two upstart California wines shocked the wine world by besting their French counterparts in the legendary Judgment of Paris wine tasting on March 24, 1976. An Oregon chardonnay made by Carlton-based Flâneur Wines triumphantly repeated that history Tuesday at the 1976 Judgment of Paris Redo (1976 Redo) blind tasting in New York City.
The winning chardonnay at the original Judgment of Paris was the 1973 Chateau Montelena made by the late Miljenko “Mike” Grgich. The winning chardonnay at the recent 76 Redo event in New York City is Flâneur’s 2021 Bon Vivant Chardonnay from the Willamette Valley.
Marty Doerschlag, Flâneur’s founder, said the good news is that lots of people are calling his tasting room to inquire about the $95 Oregon chardonnay that just defeated wines from such famed French producers as Roulot, Lafon, Raveneau and Coche. The bad news? “We only have about 25 cases left,” Doerschlag said.
The point man on the 1976 Redo is Patrick Cappiello, a Sonoma County, California, winemaker with an extensive sommelier background. Cappiello and his group of organizers spelled out the motivation for their “redo” in large all-caps print on their website: “We believe the American wine industry deserves more recognition.”
A similar motivation inspired the late Steven Spurrier, who, along with his American colleague Patricia Gallagher, organized the original Judgment of Paris in 1976 at the InterContinental Hotel on the Rue de Castiglione.
Spurrier — played by Alan Rickman in “Bottle Shock,” the movie about the 1976 Paris tasting — was a British wine merchant operating a wine shop and wine school in Paris. Eager to introduce premium California wines to the French market and promote his businesses, Spurrier staged a blind tasting event to coincide with U.S. Bicentennial celebrations.
Appropriately, the results of the 1976 blind tasting in Paris were to the wine world what the “shot heard ‘round the world” in Concord and Lexington was to the American Revolutionary War.
The French judges in 1976 voted the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay and the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon made by another Napa legend, the late Warren Winiarski, as the winners of their categories. Several other California wines also performed well against their French counterparts. The results boldly demonstrated that U.S. wines could rival their older European cousins in quality.
Not everyone in Paris was thrilled with the results. One of the judges, leading French wine and cuisine expert Odette Kahn, had the strongest reaction.
Eager to erase the evidence that she had given her top scores to the Chateau Montelena and Stag’s Leap wines, Kahn confronted Spurrier, demanding that he return her score cards. In what was undoubtedly a lively conversation, the famously gracious Spurrier politely refused.
This more recent Oregon chardonnay victory against heavy-hitting Burgundy producers won’t surprise anyone familiar with Flâneur’s wines, which have a long track record of critical acclaim and high point scores.
It certainly didn’t surprise the winery’s founder, who considers the 2021 vintage a sort of restitution after 2020’s catastrophic COVID pandemic and wildfire smoke. “When we taste the 2021 Bon Vivant as a team, its quality is sort of eyebrow-raising. But at the same time, I’m so in love with that vintage, because I always feel like it’s Mother Nature making up for 2020. So all the wines from 2021, for me, are exceptional,” Doerschlag said.
I was also impressed with the 2021 Bon Vivant Chardonnay when I tasted it upon release. Made with fruit from Flâneur’s picturesque La Belle Promenade estate vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains, the wine packed a brisk dose of acidity to frame its aromas and flavors of lemon, assorted stone fruits and the kind of salinity that rivals a maritime breeze on the Oregon coast.
I wasn’t alone in my appreciation, as the 2021 Flâneur Bon Vivant Chardonnay dazzled two sets of judges as part of the 1976 Redo competition.
The first tasting was in Sebastopol, California, in January 2025. That’s where nine judges waded through nearly 400 American wines from 11 states in four categories: cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, chenin blanc and syrah. The task of these wine industry veterans was to narrow the list of wines down to the five best in each category.
The Flâneur Bon Vivant was the top-rated chardonnay at the first blind tasting in California. Then it was off to New York City for the final blind tasting on March 24, 2026. In the main event, the five top American wines in each category were pitted against five wines made by quality French producers.
It was more of the same in New York City, with a panel of 12 judges ranking Bon Vivant as the top chardonnay. “It felt like a form of validation that all four of the wines that finished first in each category in California, also finished first with a different set of judges in New York City,” Cappiello said.
The winners of the other three categories were the 2021 Scar of the Sea Wines Bassi Vineyard Syrah, California; 2017 Château Latour, Bordeaux, France; and the 2022 Las Jaras Wines Cuvee Esme Anne Chenin Blanc, California. Another Oregon wine, the 2022 Landmass Wines Saint Morand Vineyard, finished fifth in the chenin blanc category.
— Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine
Dining and Cooking