Judgement of Paris 50 Years: You Be the Judge
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Judgement of Paris tasting, we asked Domestic Buyer Ryan Woodhouse, Burgundy Buyer Alex Pross, and Bordeaux Buyer Ryan Moses: if the Judgement of Paris tasting were recreated in 2026, what wines would they put forward from their respective categories? No restrictions on cost—just modern benchmark selections from California, Burgundy, and Bordeaux, chosen for bragging rights.
Rather than revisiting the exact bottles poured in 1976, this tasting imagines what a contemporary version of that landmark blind showdown could look like today, with a special selection of eight wines instead of the usual six (bonus!) and a lineup built around evolving styles and the way global wine culture has shifted over the last fifty years.
Guests will taste four whites and four reds blind, echoing the original Paris format that famously challenged long-held assumptions about California and French wine on an international stage. We don't want to give too many hints, but we can tell you that wines will include Grand Cru Burgundy ($300+), classic Napa Cabernet ($200+) and more. Considering it would cost $1,250 to take the full lineup home, this promises to be a spectacular opportunity to taste what our buyers think is some of the very best.
As K&L Wine Merchants also marks its own 50th anniversary, the tasting becomes part historical tribute, part thought experiment, inviting everyone at the tasting to debate, discover, second-guess, and ultimately reveal where today’s benchmark wines really stand. Whether your palate leans Old World, New World, or somewhere happily in between, this is a chance to step into one of wine’s most influential stories—and rewrite the ending for 2026.
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Judgement of Paris 50 Years: You Be the Judge at K&L Wine Merchants - San Francisco is sold out.