1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon

This bottle of 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon wine was made by Warren Winiarski, founder, owner, and winemaker at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, in Napa, California. It is the wine that outranked the best reds of France at a blind tasting held in Paris in 1976.

Organized by Steven Spurrier, an English wine merchant, and his American business partner Patricia Gallagher, the tasting involved a panel of nine experienced French judges, all experts in food and wine. Without knowing the identities of the wines, they ranked a select group of whites and reds from France and California. The results were shocking and controversial: wines made by a new generation of winemakers in California outscored the best of France in both categories.

The "Judgment of Paris" had a tremendous impact on the California and U.S. wine industries. It crushed the widely-held belief that only the French could make fine wine and inspired American vintners to expand their operations. The aftermath of the tasting played out most vigorously in California, where, between 1975 and 2004, the number of wineries grew from 330 to 1,689. By 2004, California accounted for most of the $643 million in annual U.S. wine exports.

After the Paris tasting, Warren Winiarski, the maker of the 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, expanded his vineyard and winery operations. Even after selling SLWC in 2007, he continued growing grapes at his Arcadia Vineyards in the Napa Valley up to the time of his death in 2024 at age 96.