Grand Jury to host rival to 1976 tasting

Published: 23 July, 2008

The Grand Jury Europen (GJE) is to host a tasting comparing Napa and Bordeaux wines, as a rival tasting to the 30th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris tasting.

The blind tasting will held on 28 September at Chteau Guiraud in Sauternes, and will feature 16 wines from both regions tasted by 30 people: 15 from the GJE Tasters' community', and 15 from Anglo-Saxon countries'

(mainly the US and UK).

Tasters will comment on each wine, mark them out of 100 and say which region they think each comes from. All the wines in the tasting will be from the 1995 vintage, and tasters will know which wines will be presented (but obviously, they will be served blind and in a random order).

Franois Mauss, founder-president of the GJE, said that the object of the tasting was to find if there was:

a wide, narrow or zero difference of appreciation between Anglo-Saxon tasters and continental Europeans'

a sensible difference of appreciation between professionals and amateurs'

if in a blind tasting, tasters are able to locate properly the majority of the wines'

if [there is a] preference for the style of Napa wines or Bordeaux wines, and how this is clear between the two communities of tasters'.

Mauss was highly critical of this year's rerun of the Judgement of Paris, and said that the GJE tasting will redress this: Such a tasting must be done in the same place, and not in two different places, since it is essential that all tasters will have in their glasses exactly the same product. Such a tasting must be done by a fair community of tasters, including professionals and great amateurs.'

He added that if the event is a success, it could be repeated each year, maybe comparing white wines, Pinot Noirs and Syrahs.

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