Blind Tasting of Top Wines

Judgment in Paris took place in 1976. A wine merchant named Steven Spurrier created the event to draw attention to his store and wine academy. This event pitted some of the best French wines against some of the best of California. The wines were tasted blind by some of the better palate's of the day, including trade people and Sommeliers. The results sent shockwaves through the wine world as Stag's Leap Cabernet got the top nod for red and Chateau Montelena beat out some of the best French Burgundies for favorite white.

Most recently Steven Spurrier partnered with a independent importer who works with some top Chilean wines to attempt the same type of blind tasting. This time there would be a mix of Chilean, Californian, Italian and French wines to taste blind and evaluate.

The original tasting arranged in this fashion took place in Berlin, Germany in 2004. Once again the results were shocking to the wine world as the Chiliean wines performed well beyond expectation. This event became known as the Berlin Tasting and just recently a similar event was held in Los Angeles.

A collection 50+ wine people were invited to blind taste 10 top wines from the 2006 vintage. The results again were shocking. We evaluated these wines in a pristine setting. Arriving to the tasting room we were greeted by 10 pre-poured glasses, all numbered 1 through 10 and papers for notes. We were told to pick our top 3 wines out of the 10 to garner the final results.

Blind tastings are always highly educational. There are no label influence or prejudice, just what is in the glass.

The wines tasted: 2006 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, France 2006 Sassicaia, Italy 2006 Errazuriz Don Maximiano, Chile 2006 Stags Leap SLV, California 2006 Errazuriz La Cumbre, Chile 2006 Opus One, California 2006 Chateau Haut Brion, France 2006 Vinedo Chadwick, Chile 2006 Sena, Chile 2006 Errazuriz Kai, Chile

The top 3 wines chosen by me: 1) 2006 Stags Leap SLV, California 2) 2006 Chateau Haut Brion, France 3) 2006 Opus One, California *a very close 4th was 2006 Sassacaia

The top 3 wines chosen by the group: 1) 2006 Stags Leap SLV, California 2) 2006 Chateau Haut Brion, France 3) 2006 Opus One, California

The rest: 4) 2006 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, France 5) 2006 ErrazurizKai, Chile 6) 2006 Vinedo Chadwick, Chile 7) 2006 Sassicaia, Italy 8) 2006 Errazuriz La Cumbre, Chile 9) 2006 Sena, Chile 10) 2006 Errazuriz Don Maximiano, Chile

So again, as in 1976, the Stags Leap Cabernet took the top spot. And the much maligned Opus One (recently making a comeback of sorts) ended up as the third favorite of the entire group. The Haut Brion was a real pleasure as well, coming in at number two.