Judgment of Paris

by George M. Taber

  A total of 330 wines of thirty-three countries were tasted by sixty-two experts from ten nationalities. France dominated in the number of wines selected to compete and the number of judges, although the wines came from as far away as China and the judges included representatives from Australia and Britain.

  The wines were selected in a somewhat bizarre way and were divided into twenty-two categories. The French wines came mainly from the stock of Nicolas, the largest French wine chain. They included some of the very best French wines but also some modest ones. The California wines were from a variety of sources including the American embassy and Spurrier’s Caves de la Madeleine, which by then carried a few of them. The selection of California wines also included both high-quality ones such as Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and lesser ones like Gallo.

  The Wine Olympics resulted in another surprisingly good showing by California wines in Paris, particularly among the whites. In the Chardonnay tasting the 1976 Trefethen Vineyards from the Napa Valley came out on top, and California wines picked up six of the top ten positions. Among the Sauvignon Blancs, two Napa Valley wines, a 1977 Sterling Vineyards and a 1976 Spring Mountain, finished first and third.

  In the red-wine tastings, the California wines did not do quite as well, although they placed six of the top ten among the Cabernet-Merlot blends, while France got the remaining four spots. A California wine, 1975 Hoffman Mountain Ranch, placed third in the Pinot Noir competition. California wines also did well in the Petite Sirah competition.

  GaultMillauconcluded in its story reporting the results, “There exist in California today a few properties or companies whose wines—although very expensive—can be considered among the best in the world.”

  The closest to a rematch took place twenty months after the original tasting on January 11 and 12, 1978, at the Vintners Club in San Francisco. Spurrier flew in from Paris to participate in the event, and many of the California winemakers were present on the night their wines were tasted.

  The Chardonnay competition was held on January 11. While the club normally had thirty or so tasters for one of its regular weekly wine samplings, on this occasion there were ninety-eight. In that blind tasting the overwhelmingly American judges ranked the 1974 Chalone first, just one-tenth of a point higher than the Chateau Montelena that had won in Paris. The consensus comments of the judges on the Chalone wine: “deep gold; perfumed oaky nose; rich, buttery, powerful, long ripe, youthful.” In Paris Chalone had scored third. In third position in San Francisco was the 1973 Spring Mountain, and in fourth was the 1972 Puligny-Montrachet Les Pucelles.

  The following night ninety-nine tasters showed up for a similar blind tasting of the Cabernet Sauvignons. The 1973 Stag’s Leap again walked off with first place, a half point ahead of the 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard. The consensus comments of the judges about the Stag’s Leap: “deep cherry color; vanilla nose, fruity; fat, chocolate, round, supple.” In third place was the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello, and in fourth the 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild.

  As the crowd left the Cabernet tasting, Joseph Heitz, whose Martha’s Vineyard wine had come in ninth in Paris but second at the Vintner’s Club rematch, walked over to Stag Leap’s Warren Winiarski and said good-naturedly, “I’m catching up with you.”

  The tenth anniversary of the Paris Tasting in 1986 offered a good occasion to see how the wines were aging. Early that year, theWine Spectator, an American magazine, staged a retasting of just the Paris Cabernet Sauvignons. Chardonnay wines were not considered on the grounds that they would be past their prime. The judges, all Americans, were fourSpectator staffers and two outsiders. The results were published in the magazine’s April 1–15 issue. Using theWine Spectator ’s 100-point system, rather than Spurrier’s 20-point one, the judges placed the 1970 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard first with 93.5. It was followed by the 1971 Mayacamas, the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello, the 1973 Stag’s Leap, and the 1972 Clos Du Val. The highest-rated French wine, the 1970 Château Montrose, placed sixth followed by the 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild, the 1971 Château Léoville-Las-Cases, the 1969 Freemark Abbey, and the 1970 Château Haut-Brion.

  Spurrier helped put together a tenth anniversary rematch in September 1986 at the French Culinary Institute in New York City. The tasting this time was again limited to the reds for the same reason as at theWine Spectator rematch. This time all the wine came directly from the producers except for Château Haut-Brion, which refused to have anything to do with it, and Freemark Abbey, which also declined to participate. Spurrier bought a bottle of Haut-Brion on the open market for the retasting, but Freemark Abbey was not included. The judges were eight Americans, mostly from the New York City wine trade. Just as in Paris in 1976, the wines were treated carefully, being decanted an hour before the tasting.

  Spurrier’s results this time were different, but California won again. The tasters commented that the 1973 Stag’s Leap seemed to be over the hill, and it finished sixth. The winning wine was the 1972 Clos Du Val from the Napa Valley, which had placed eighth in Paris. Second place also went to another California wine, the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello. Then came the French in third, fourth, and fifth positions: 1970 Château Montrose, 1971 Château Léoville-Las-Cases, and 1970 Château Mouton Rothschild. The 1970 Château Haut-Brion rated last among the nine wines. Several of the judges said that they had difficulty distinguishing between the French and California wines—just as their Paris counterparts had ten years earlier.

  It was difficult by the tenth anniversary, or thereafter, to take seriously the French objections that they had been robbed or tricked by Spurrier in 1976. The California wines had stood the test of time. Now all the red wines, both French and Californian, were coming up to fifteen years of bottle aging and were at or near their peak. The results of the two most highly publicized retastings showed that the California wines were probably aging better than the French ones were. Said James Laube, aWine Spectator judge: “The extra decade of bottle age was kinder to California Cabs than to the Bordeaux.”

  At the thirtieth anniversary of the Paris event in May 2006, Steven Spurrier organized a two-continent rematch, with judges both in London and in Napa. There were nine judges at each location and only red wines from the original vintages were blind-tasted. The results in 2006 were even more stunning: California wines took the top five positions. The winning Cabernet Sauvignon this time: 1971 Ridge Monte Bello. The 1976 winner, 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, was second. All the arguments that the French wines would show better as they aged were finally and conclusively laid to rest.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  A Dream Fulfilled

  Anyone who knows his history must surely know his wines.

  —ARNOLD TOYNBEE

  Shortly after the results of the Paris Tasting in 1976 became known, Mike Grgich’s phone at Chateau Montelena started ringing with offers for him to move to other wineries to be the winemaker. Relations at Chateau Montelena between managing partner Jim Barrett and Grgich had gradually been deteriorating. Both Lee Paschich and Barrett had been increasingly taking a more active role in the business, while Grgich wanted to run his own operation. He felt that too many people who didn’t know anything about making wine were telling him what to do. So the winemaker listened closely to the offers and had follow-up conversations with many people. Most of the proposals, though, were only for Grgich to do the same job at a better salary than he was getting at Chateau Montelena. Grgich wanted more than that. He had worked for others for long enough; now he wanted his own winery.

  Ever since he had arrived in the Napa Valley in 1958, Grgich had dreamed of being the master of his domain. Originally he thought that within a year he would have saved up enough money to buy one of the more run-down ghost wineries. But as time passed, he saw the prices—and the interest rates—gradually climb. So he told himself that he’d buy something as soon as they came down. But they never did, and by the mid-1970s his dream had all but evaporated. After the Paris Tasting, though, Grgich returned to the goal of hav
ing his own place.

  The first thing he had to do was raise some money. He informed Barrett that he would be leaving at the end of his five-year agreement. His contract with Chateau Montelena gave him the right to cash out his 5 percent ownership position for $50,000. In addition, he sold the stock Ernie Hahn had given him for $45,000.

  The parting was bitter on both sides. Grgich told people that he didn’t think Barrett had treated him right. “When I left Robert Mondavi, we were friends,” he told people. “When I left Chateau Montelena, we were not friends. There was no friendship.” At the same time, Barrett was unhappy that Grgich was taking advantage of the Paris publicity to strike out on his own, leaving him without a winemaker.

  With the new money in hand, Grgich set out to buy two acres of land in Rutherford. That would be just enough land for a winery and sales room, where he could sell directly to tourists. He would start with only two thousand cases a year. He would buy all his grapes and focus on what he did best: make wine. That plan died quickly, however. Grgich had been unaware of the 1968 regulation that required him to buy a minimum of twenty acres of land. Upon learning of this, he put down the $95,000 from his two stock transactions plus another $5,000 to buy twenty acres in Rutherford along Route 29. But that left him with no money to start a winery.

  After on-and-off talks with several potential partners, in late 1976 came an offer from Austin E. Hills of the Hills Bros. coffee family, who already owned two vineyards in the Napa Valley. Following undergraduate work at Stanford and then getting an MBA from Columbia University, Hills had gone into the family business in San Francisco. In the early 1970s he had bought land and began growing grapes in the Napa Valley. He eventually established Hills Vineyard. In 1975 and 1976, Hills had Chardonnay and Riesling wines made with his grapes at the Souverain Cellars winery in Rutherford but sold them under his label.

  The foreman who managed the Hills vineyards arranged a meeting between Grgich and Hills at the foreman’s home in Calistoga. The conversation began with generalizations but soon got down to the tough issue: ownership. Grgich politely explained that he wanted to control 51 percent of the winery. His experience at Chateau Montelena had shown him that minority owners didn’t have any control, even if they were star winemakers. “Under no circumstances am I going to work for anybody again, Mr. Hills,” Grgich said. “I’ve worked for eighteen years for other people, and I’ve learned a lot from every place I’ve worked. But for once in my life, I want to work for myself. You can’t change my mind.”

  Hills, though, also wanted majority ownership. He pointed out that he had 155 acres of land in two vineyards and could also contribute $400,000 to build a winery and help get the business started. The two men left without any agreement but on pleasant terms.

  Shortly thereafter, Grgich went to San Francisco to see Ted Kolb, a lawyer who had also been on the board of directors at Beaulieu Vineyard, where Grgich had met him. Kolb and Grgich did a quick business plan for a winery that would produce ten thousand cases a year, the smallest level of production that was considered economical. Kolb calculated that it would require $750,000. Grgich would contribute $100,000 in the form of the land he had already bought, and Hills would put up his $400,000 in new capital.

  “So we can make it,” said Grgich.

  “Mike, I don’t think you’re good at math,” responded Kolb. “You’re $250,000 short.”

  “Mr. Kolb, you know American business. But you don’t know Mike Grgich.” The winemaker then told the lawyer about meeting the Canadian businessman on the train that took him to Vancouver as an immigrant years ago. His fellow traveler had urged him to start a business and build it from the ground up by doing most of the work himself. If an American needed $750,000, Grgich felt he could do it with half that, following the old European style of scrimping and saving he had learned as a child.

  Grgich returned to the Napa Valley and met again with Hills. Grgich discussed the business plan he had in mind, and Hills liked that Grgich was a frugal person who would not pay a dollar more for something than he had to. Hills believed that quality would be vital for someone starting a new company. This time the meeting went well, and shortly before the end of 1976, the two men agreed on a 50-50 partnership. Grgich would own 50 percent, while Hills and his sister, Mary Lee Strebl, would each have 25 percent. Hills would be chairman; Grgich would be CEO and winemaker. Grgich contributed his twenty acres in Rutherford, while Hills and his sister put up $400,000 with the agreement that it would be paid back over ten years.

  Immediately Grgich set to work, with the goal of making his inaugural vintage in the fall of 1977. The first thing he had to do was come up with a name. Grgich wanted to call their venture Chateau Hills since the term chateau implied the quality wines that he intended to produce, and the company registered that name with the state. Hills, though, thought that the moniker was pompous since their chateau would be just a cement-block building they were going to construct on Route 29. The two men finally agreed to call it Grgich Hills Wine Cellar. Cellar, not cellars, because Grgich didn’t want to promise too much. It was designed to produce ten thousand cases a year, and the founders hoped to achieve that level of production within a decade.

  In the spring of 1977, while on Easter vacation at Yosemite Park, Grgich contracted to buy his first sixty tons of Chardonnay grapes in the fall from a Napa grower, closing the deal on a pay phone outside the motel where he was staying. Grgich also hired an architect to do five sketches for twenty dollars each of a combined winery and tasting room. He selected the simplest design: a rectangular building with the tasting room on the side facing the highway.

  Grgich got lots of help from the local wine fraternity in his venture. Margrit Biever, the special promotions director for Robert Mondavi who three years later would become his second wife, helped Grgich design his first label. It shows a cluster of Chardonnay grapes and has a symbol for each partner: a horse from his family coat of arms for Hills and the Croatian flag for Grgich.

  Getting all the legal and regulatory work done took until late spring, but finally on July 4, 1977, Hills and Grgich invited some of their friends to a groundbreaking for the new winery. The date wasn’t an accident. Grgich considered American Independence Day to be his own independence day. It was a beautiful hot day, and a priest blessed the site. In the four corners of the foundation for the winery were bottles of four wines on which Grgich had worked and that played a major part in his life: a 1958 Souverain Cabernet Sauvignon, a 1968 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a 1969 Robert Mondavi Winery Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. In only four months the winemaking was due to start, but there was nothing on the property. No winery, no vines, no grapes. Nothing except wild grass.

  Grgich eventually signed contracts to buy 100 tons of Chardonnay grapes, 60 tons from Napa Valley and 40 from Sonoma County. He bottled the two batches separately, labeling them Chardonnay Napa and Chardonnay Sonoma. In addition, he bought 30 tons of Riesling and also made that wine. Just as at Chateau Montelena, he was going to concentrate on white wines that would quickly be on the market. The Riesling would be for sale in six months; the Chardonnay within a year.

  In mid-August and shortly before the harvest was due to start, Grgich went to see Robert Mondavi. The two men had remained friends, and the new owner needed help. Grgich explained that he had gotten a late start building his winery and wasn’t sure that all the equipment at his winery would be in place in time for the crush.

  “Mike, you don’t need my help. I started construction on my winery on July 17 and we still made the crush. You started two weeks earlier than I did. You’ll make it.”

  Grgich was shattered. But Mondavi was only joking and pulled out a sheet of paper on which he wrote that he would crush Grgich’s grapes if his own equipment was not ready. In the end, the construction was completed just before the crush started on September 5. Nonetheless, Grgich was relieved to have the Mondavi commitmen
t on paper in his pocket just in case.

  The Grgich Hills tasting room opened to visitors and buyers on November 1, selling at first only the remaining stock from Hills Vineyard, which Grgich bought from his partner at wholesale. Grgich’s conservative approach to building a business is best seen in the way he expanded sales of his wines. Initially they were only available at the winery, then he sold some in St. Helena thirteen miles north, and after that he sold wines in the town of Napa thirteen miles south. Only after he had been successful in stores in those three places did he venture to the distant San Francisco market, sixty miles away. That first partial year in operation Grgich Hills lost $49,000 primarily because it was open for only a few months. In 1978, the winery’s second year in operation, it made more money than it lost in the first year. Normally it takes a winery five to ten years to become profitable. Grgich did it in a year and a half.

  In the fall of 1980, three Chicago wine stores and the wine columnist for theChicago Tribune staged the “Great Chardonnay Showdown.” At the time, that was by far America’s favorite wine, and the organizers gathered 221 Chardonnays from around the world for the competition. There was heavy representation from France and California but also entrants from other countries from as far afield as Australia and Bulgaria. Five panels of five judges each first selected 19 finalists. Then ten of the original judges reviewed the finalists a second time. The wine hailed as the best in the world: the 1977 Grgich Hills Sonoma County Chardonnay, the new winery’s very first vintage.

  Almost from the first day it was sold, Grgich Hills Chardonnay was on allocation, and consumers couldn’t buy more than three cases a year. It took the winery fifteen years before production satisfied demand and the allocation system was dropped. During that time, Mike Grgich and Austin Hills easily moved into their respective roles at Grgich Hills Wine Cellar. They had a 50-50 partnership that worked.