Jim Barrett died March 14th............

[droner]

You probably don't recognize the name but to wine connoisseurs Jim Barrett was there when the California wine industry proved it could compete with French wines. Barrett was the owner of Chateau Montelena, a Napa winery. In the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also know as Judgment of Paris, California wines took top honors in all categories with the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay (1973) winning the white wine category. Almost all of the judges were French in the blind tasting.

All hell broke loose in France. The French press refused to cover the event and did not even report it for months. Excuses were made for the French wines and one judge even demanded her ballot returned. They could not believe and refused to accept reality that California wine was now that good.

But it was too late, the California wine genie was out of the bottle. The event was even re-created twice in later years with the same vintages of some of the same wines. The results were almost identical.

This event was the subject of the movie Bottle Shock which came out a few years ago.