Judgment of Miami: Napa vs. Bordeaux
Wine Club Miami replicated the famous 'Judgment of Paris' tasting with six wines from Napa and Bordeaux. Who won?
On Wednesday, March 6th, Wine Club Miami gathered to celebrate one of the most important and category-defining events in wine history: the Judgment of Paris. Led by the late Steven Spurrier, a world-renowned English wine merchant, the top wines of Bordeaux and Napa were poured for a panel of judges in the same room.
Blind.
The red wines from California comprised:
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet 1973
Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello red blend 1971
Heitz Wine Cellars Martha's Vineyard Cabernet 1970
Clos Du Val Winery 1972
Mayacamas Vineyards Cabernet 1971
Freemark Abbey Winery Cabernet 1969
The red wines from Bordeaux comprised:
Château Mouton-Rothschild 1970
Château Montrose 1970
Château Haut-Brion 1970
Château Leoville Las Cases 1971
Long story short, the big deal was that Napa beat Bordeaux, which erupted all notions people had of the New World. All of a sudden, Napa was recognized as a world class region. But our founder Jeff Tenen made a good point as we poured the wines in nearly 50 years later. He mentioned that the wines were from different vintages and didn’t have much age behind them to really give an equal playing field. After all, Bordeaux is eternal!
So we decided to pour three Cabernet-based red wines from Napa and three Left Bank reds, all from the same vintage: 1998. This is considered a poor vintage for Napa and Bordeaux, making this even more interesting as we are weighing this in balance and trying to make it as fair as possible. So, poor vintage, same age, same grapes. What were the results?
Pahlmeyer 1998 - This was the joker of the night. All eight members put down Bordeaux! An early winner, the blend (which contains Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec) was chiseled with roasted cherry, crushed herbs, eucalyptus and zesty orange peel with a stellar finish. Some had this as their #1.
Joseph Phelps Insignia 1998 - Our member Jesus has tasted ‘02 Insignia and claims that you automatically get Pauillac on the nose. But this ‘98 was different. For starters, the cork had seepage and was crumbled so it could have affected the taste, but it still had plenty of life: a full body, hints of smoke, dates, mint and a heavy cloud of cigar box. It didn’t match up to some of the other wines though.
Château Montrose 1998 - This producer was in the original Judgment, and showed extremely well. Another favorite of the night, the Montrose showed aromas of coffee and vanilla spice, combined with notes of smoldering orange peel, sour cherry and ripe raspberries. It will most likely outlive the rest of the pack, and gave the Pahlmeyer some heavy competition.
Château D’Armailhac 1998 - Bang Bang! This producer was pouring the 2018 vintage at James Suckling Great Wines of the World recently (see our recap here). By coincidence, the winery rep at the booth mentioned that the ‘98 was singing beautifully at this stage…indeed it was on March 6th. It had classic, Pauillac tobacco aromas and sweetness to it, held together by a strong core of fruit indicating a solid peak here. For a Mouton Rothschild family wine, we’re not surprised this was up there.
Château Les Carmes Haut Brion 1998 - This wine was the trickiest of the night, bending the minds at the table and testing our experience with both regions. Napa or Bordeaux? 50/50. Either way, a beam of acidity rode on this wine and didn’t show the strong fruit forwardness expected out of a Napa Cabernet…which had some of us leaning toward Bordeaux.
Spottswoode Cabernet 1998 - Most of us didn’t have this wine near the top, but following the reveal and an additional hour in the glass, Spottswoode began to creep up to the top three for a few. How? It’s strong, dark fruit core began to smoothen out, offering a generous bouquet of vanilla, ripe cherry, raspberry and bright acidity that made you wish the bottle was a magnum.
Although we would have liked to do six glasses at once, we opted for two rounds of three wines, with a half time in the middle. We’ll have to put six-glass cases on our wish list for 2024. The room was dead quiet for both rounds, where each of us wrote down our tasting notes and ultimately decided on the region, appellation, vintage (only the co-presidents knew this since we acquired the wines) and producer. We paired the wines with pizza from ‘O Munaciello in MiMo and Argentinean BBQ from a nearby food truck called Kincho Grill. Once we finished our notes, we discussed wine #1, revealed it, and so on until we took the last brown bag off the Spottswoode.
We ended the tasting with a reminder of Bordeaux’s ageability and quality, but also a greater respect for Napa’s ability to develop thin layers of complexity, elegance and satisfying flavors over time, while maintaining a good level of acidity throughout.
So who won? It depends on who you ask in our club. But each wine had its own magic to it, and belonged on this table of world-class producers that still stand today.