Judgment of Paris and Subsequent Competitions
The winery achieved significant international recognition in 1976, four years after its establishment, at the Judgment of Paris where its 1973 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon won first place among ten top French and California red wines in a blind taste test by leading French wine experts. The French wines tasted were prestigious first and second growths wines from the 1970 and 1971 vintage from Château Haut-Brion, Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Leoville Las Cases and Château Montrose.
The result of the tasting has been described by Decanter as "a victory that put California on the winemaking map, and established Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars as a global superstar", and by Paul Lukacs as "most important, it enabled not only the United States but also Australia, South America, and the rest of the New World to emerge as legitimate sources of increasingly superior wines."
A bottle of 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon was placed into the Smithsonian National Museum of American History collection in 1996 as a result of placing first in this competition and to reflect the impact that the achievement had on the United States wine industry.
The San Francisco Wine Tasting of 1978 was a re-tasting of the same wines 20 months after the Paris event. Stag's Leap again won first place with a different set of judges.
At the French Culinary Institute Wine Tasting of 1986, held ten years after Paris, Stag's Leap received sixth place, and in the Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986 it won fourth place.
In 'The Judgment of Paris' 30th Anniversary tasting with the same wines and vintages tasted at the original Judgment of Paris competition, Stag's Leap achieved second place.
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