…. with more and more regions now empowered to challenge established regions and produce world-class wines, believes the International Wine and Food Society (IWFS), host of the all-new event, The Judgement +50.

Subsequently, the results of the mega-tasting have been announced, and once again, there are surprises in store. Scroll down for the results

It was an indisputable part of the history of wine. Reams have been written on the event, and it has been discussed, dissected, and analysed to the nth degree.

A recap. A blind tasting of wines in Paris in May 1976, organised by the British wine merchant Steven Spurrier, since referred to as the Judgement of Paris, pitted top French wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux against Californian upstarts.  Shockingly, the upstarts won. 

Half a century later, the International Wine and Food Society (IWFS), the world’s largest gastronomic organisation, is organising a retrial of the tasting, with France taking on the rest of the World in the largest mass blind tasting ever organised over five continents in one week. In 1976, the professionals decided, and this time it is the people’s vote. The results will be released on the fiftieth anniversary of the original tasting on May 24th, 2026.

In 1976, French wines were widely regarded as the world’s most renowned. Today, in the fast-changing world of wine, the IWFS Judgement +50 tastings will once again taste French Chardonnays and Bordeaux Blends, but this time they will be pitched against a more diverse lineup from the world’s top wine regions – North and South America, South Africa, and Oceania.

In 1976, an elite group of nine French judges tasted Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from France and California – blind.  From France, the Burgundies included highly regarded wines such as Bâtard-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles, while the reds included Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Haut-Brion.  The result shocked the establishment and proved that great wine could come from anywhere.  The Judgement of Paris did for wine what breaking the four-minute mile did for sport. The event was immortalised in the 2008 movie, Bottle Shock, starring Alan Rickman; the book, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine by George M. Taber (the Time journalist who attended the event), and by a blog written by Steven Spurrier himself on the website of the Académie du Vin Library.

The wines for this event were selected by a panel including MWs and members of its prestigious International Wines Committee.   The IWFS has over 5,000 members worldwide, and events are planned in branches across the UK and Europe, along with Canada, the USA, Africa, Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and the Philippines.  Rather than being judged by nine experts, this time, some 1,000 wine enthusiasts across the world will deliver the new verdict. This is likely to be the largest coordinated blind tasting ever performed in terms of both participant numbers and global reach.

Stephen Harrison, Chair, IWFS Europe Africa, answered some of my questions on the event.  

With the world changing so fast, and in so many ways (uncertainty over climate, geopolitics) what role does a revival or reenactment of the Judgement of Paris, 50 years ago, play? What do you see as a desirable outcome?

The goal of the event series is to celebrate the legacy of the original Judgement, which is the diversity in wine choice now available from across the world.  Without Judgement it’s unimaginable that the surge in quality and choice that we now enjoy would have happened to the extent it has.  The legacy continues with more and more regions now empowered to challenge established regions and produce world-class wines. The desirable outcome would be for consumers to continue to experiment and try new wines – enjoying themselves along the way.   

 Would you enumerate the conditions that have changed since the original Judgement of Paris? In terms of the wine regions, most specifically?

As above, we believe that the quality and choice now available to consumers stems directly from Judgement.  Coupled with the effects of climate change, wine is being produced in areas inconceivable 50 years ago – English sparkling, for example.  “New” regions such as India and Romania (which obviously has made wine for centuries) are now becoming widely known and rightly celebrated for the quality they bring.  

 By broadening the canvas and having ‘non-experts’ at the table doing the judging, what differences do you envisage? And why was this decided?

We have a global membership of some 5,000+.  Within this are a profusion of MWs and other experts, but the majority are “enthusiastic amateurs” who come together to learn and share special moments in wine and food regularly with friends.  Judgement +50 fits exactly with the sort of experience that our members enjoy.  Just as Judgement “democratised” the choice of wines available, it seemed appropriate to offer anyone with a keen palate the chance to take part in creating their own tribute to a unique historical event.  

  How are you selecting the wines for an event of this scale?

The Masters of Wine and members of our International Wines Committee used four key criteria:

a)    Price – we want to make the event as accessible as possible, while offering the chance to compare and contrast wines of some distinction.
b)   Availability – we wanted to select wines that are available globally so that as many members as possible could participate.  This meant choosing wines that are relatively young, but still enjoyable.
c)    Typicity – how well the wine expresses the signature characteristics of its grape variety and its region.
d)    Vintage – we have chosen “comparable” vintages within a narrow range of years to allow for regional differences in growing conditions.
 

UPDATE:

On 24th May, the results of the mega-tasting exercise were announced.

There were some surprises in the results. Read on.

Tastings took place in Europe, North America, South Africa, Asia and Australia, with approximately 1,000 IWFS members taking part. Bella Spurrier – wife of the late Steven Spurrier – participated in the flagship London event. 

In eight locations in the UK, Australia, and South Africa, 221 members tasted and scored on a 20-point scale the same flights of wines – a world-class line-up of 6 Chardonnay wines and 6 Bordeaux (red) blends, selected by Masters of Wine and members of the Society’s International Wines Committee.  Two bottles of each flight were from France, and one from Napa Valley, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, or Argentina. The scores have been aggregated.

The verdict is now in:

The specific wines chosen by the Society’s experts were:

Best Chardonnay:	Kumeu River, Coddington, New Zealand 2024
Best Bordeaux Blend:	Shafer Vineyards TD-9, Napa Valley, USA 2019
Top Four Wines (1st and 2nd from each flight):	One each from New Zealand, Napa Valley (USA), South Africa and Chile
Top French Wine:	The Louis Jadot Puligny Montrachet placed in a virtual tie for 3rd place amongst the whites, but received the 2nd most number of ‘favourite’ votes, after the Kumeu River

The scores for each category were extremely close, with just 0.8 points (out of 20) separating the 6 red wines and only 0.6 points for the whites.

World-class wines were put to the test:

Chardonnay

Wines	Country
Domaine Leflaive, Macon Verzé 2022	France
Louis Jadot Puligny Montrachet 2023	France
Chateau Montelena 2022	USA
Kumeu River, Coddington 2024	New Zealand
Restless River, Ava Marie Chardonnay, Upper Hemel en Aarde Valley 2020	South Africa
Concha y Toro Amelia Limari Chardonnay 2023	Chile

Red Bordeaux Blends

Wines	Country
Domaine De Chevalier, Cru Classé Pessac Léognan 2017	France
Chateau Langoa Barton, St Julien 2018	France
Shafer Vineyards TD-9, Napa 2019	USA
Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River 2021	Australia
Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Stellenbosch 2019	South Africa
Nicolás Catena Zapata, Mendoza 2020	Argentina

What it Means

Stephen Harrison, Chair of IWFS Europe Africa told us:  “With its worldwide membership of enthusiasts and experts, only an organisation like IWFS could attempt an event on this scale.  Rather than seeking to copy what was done 50 years ago, we wanted to celebrate how much the world of wine has changed in half a century. World-class wine is now being produced across the Globe.  Congratulations to Kumeu River and Shafer for scoring the highest point totals! 

However, with such a narrow range of scores across the board, the IWFS verdict shows that we live in a golden age for wine lovers – we now have a glorious diversity of great wines, winemaking techniques and producers to choose from.

We were lucky to be able to draw on our deep resource of experts to select the wines.  We tried to choose bottles that exemplified the characteristics of their regions, were widely distributed, and were at a similar price point.  As a Society, we balance accessibility and aspiration, and therefore sourced the wines at a cost that enabled so many members to take part.”