Sir Peter Michael’s Vineyard hotel near Newbury is inspired by a blind tasting that happened almost 40 years ago – and which changed the wine world for good. Fiona Adams sips up
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The reception and vault at The Vineyard near Newbury. The Judgement of Paris lies beyond...
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The Judgement of Paris. Gary Myatt, oils on canvas. Click the box to the top-right for a closer look.
The moment you enter The Vineyard, a hotel and restaurant popular with wine lovers at Stockcross near Newbury, Berkshire, your gaze is attracted by a magnificent oil painting in the style of da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Cheekily, the hotel’s owner, Sir Peter Michael, has been painted into the left side of the scene, raising a glass to what appears to be a table of judges arguing over the quality of wines. In fact, the painting is inspired by an event that occurred almost 40 years ago –and which shook the wine world to its core.
Today, we’re accustomed to Californian wines in our shops and supermarkets but in 1976, things were very different. Then, French wines dominated the world’s shelves and racks. Which is why an event that took place on 24 May that year would prove to be so significant.
It was organised by a British wine merchant called Steven Spurrier, and inspired by The Judgement of Paris, the mythical contest between Aphrodite, Athena and Hera, the three most beautiful goddesses of Olympus.
However, on this occasion, the prize was not a golden apple, but the right for New World wines from California to be taken seriously, at a time when France was considered the producer – almost without compare – of the world’s best.
The 1976 judgement involved blind tastings of wines from France and California: three top-notch Chardonnays and three top-notch reds (Bordeaux from France and Cabernet Sauvignon from California).
It was considered unthinkable that France would lose. Even Spurrier, who sold only French wine from his shop Les Caves de la Madeleine in Paris, was convinced that La belle France would win hands down.
At the time, a British entrepreneur called Sir Peter Michael was developing an interest in wine. He was an engineer by training and a pioneer of digital technology who would go on to launch Classic FM radio in 1992. By the time of the competition he had already travelled to the west coast of America and discovered Californian wines for himself. He was very interested in Spurrier’s challenge.
“I was spending a lot of time in California in the early 1970s,” he tells me. “When the result of the Judgment of Paris was announced, it spread around the States in seconds: it was huge, huge news.”
The Judgment of Paris tastings comprised a panel of 11 expert judges of British, American and French origin. They included Pierre Brejoux of the Institute of Appellations Of Origin, Patricia Gallagher of l’Academie du Vin, Odette Kahn, editor of La Revue du vin de France, and Spurrier. The judges were asked to award each wine marks out of 20.
Two American white wines and one red triumphed over their French counterparts, sending shock waves through the world’s wine communities. Suitably inspired, Sir Peter Michael sought to find a location in California for a winery of his own. His decision was sealed by singing sensation, Peggy Lee.
“In 1976 I was living in Silicon Valley and had fallen a little bit in love with Peggy Lee, whom I’d never seen live,” recalls Sir Peter. “One night she was performing at the Fairmont Hotel and I took some dinner guests to see her. I ordered a bottle of French Burgundy and when it came, it was rotten. I asked the waiter what the locals drank and he brought me a bottle of Chateau Montalena from California (it’s now my neighbour). It knocked my socks off. I knew then that I had to find somewhere in California to make wine of my own.”
In 1982, Sir Peter bought 605 acres of volcanic ridges on the western face of Mount Saint Helena in Knights Valley, California, and set about establishing his vineyard. The first vintage was produced from the Peter Michael Winery in 1987. Sir Peter has gone on to win many plaudits for his wines, ironically, all of them bearing French names.
Coincidentally, 30 years after the Judgment of Paris, Sir Peter acquired the Vineyard Hotel in Stockcross, near Newbury, which has become renowned for its food and wine. With a cellar of more than 30,000 bottles, up to a 100 different wines by the glass and a restaurant serving both à la carte and tasting menus, it is a destination for oenophiles and gastronomes.
Guests enjoy excellent service and the delights of a spa featuring grape-inspired treatments, but the undoubted attraction is the sophisticated tasting menu, and the opportunity to recreate for yourself a Judgment of Paris tasting challenge.
Guests can choose from a seven- or eight-course tasting menu, created by French chef Daniel Galmiche, and choose a bottle from the wine list the size of a telephone directory, or take the plunge and opt either for Discovery Wines (a mystery tour of grapes, regions and countries) or so-called Judgment of Paris Judgment Wines.
Michael, our sommelier for the evening, talked us through the various pairings which included reds, whites and sparkling wines. Five of the seven courses were teamed with one Californian and one French glass. Two came with a selection served in a black glass, revealing nothing of the wines’ colour or sheen. With each dish we were left to work out which wine was which.
It is far more difficult than it sounds and, as the dinner progressed, Michael advised us to decide only which glass we liked most. It should come as no surprise that we liked the Californian choices over the French.
Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris. Will Sir Peter be marking it?
“Yes, is the answer to that,” he replies. “Both in California and at the Vineyard. Steven Spurrier has joined us in both places in the past. Not everyone is still around from the Judgement of Paris, but I will invite those who still are.”
On that note I ask one last question: if he could choose any wine for his final meal, what would it be?
“It would have to be Les Pavots 2001 [one of Sir Peter’s own wines], which in my view was truly great.”
