A few weeks ago, Canadian wine shot to the front page of the papers when the newswires reported that in an international competition, a Niagara Chardonnay triumphed over some top wines of California and France. This upset happened at a recent re-enactment of the “Judgment of Paris” – a 1976 blind taste test in which a panel of French wine critics disemboweled everyone’s expectations (including their own) by scoring California wines higher than top bottles from the legendary regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux.
Many wine critics call the 1976 event the “original judgment of Paris”. O tempora, O mores! Does no one care about classical literature anymore? The original judgment of Paris was a beauty contest in Turkey that got a little out of hand and triggered the Trojan War. I suppose there are some similarities between the mythic Greek judgment and the French wine tasting from the 1970s. For example, both have been made into bad movies.
The recent Canadian rematch was held in the Montreal restaurant Le Columbe in early 2009. As you might expect, it featured French versus American wines, but the line-up included a couple spoilers to make things interesting. Ten critics, tasting blind, gave the top prize to Ontario’s Le Clos Jordanne 2005 Claystone Terrace Chardonnay ($35.00). I have celebrated Le Clos Jordanne before, but the newspapers are only painting one half of the picture.
The original results are hard to find on the internet, but can be found at this link. They tell a few stories that have gone untold in the newspapers:
- French Bordeaux wines from the 2004 vintage took the top 3 spots for red wines. This was a surprise since some critics considered it a pretty bad year. The LCBO especially seems to have a hate-on for 2004 Bordeaux, making them a rarity on store shelves in Ontario. Perhaps its time for the LCBO to re-appraise its judgment of 2004.
- For now France has recaptured the momentum from California when it comes to red wines. This is a triumph of subtlety over power.
- The best rated red wine was the artistic Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. This is no shocker at all – it is one of the most expensive wines in the world and the priciest bottle in the competition. I guess you really can taste the money.
- For the Cabernet Sauvignons category, the judges included spoilers from Washington state and Spain, but didn’t seem to think that any Canadian reds were qualified to compete.
- After falling out of favour for a few years, well-oaked Chardonnay seems to be back in fashion. The top whites all have the distinctive opulence that comes from being aged in barrels.
Matthew Sullivan is a civil litigator in Toronto. He writes a weekly blog entry here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca