If you do not know George Taber, he is the author of the Judgement of Paris and is the only reporter to cover the 1976 Paris tasting. In this epic head-to-head battle, Napa Valley Chardonnay and Cabernet went up against White Burgundy and Red Bordeaux.
California came out on top, sending shockwaves throughout the wine world.
I was fortunate enough to sit down with George two years ago on the 41st anniversary of the Paris tasting.
“Well, I don’t really have a favorite wine. I like them all, or just about all of them, because it’s like saying, ‘Who’s the most beautiful woman that you’ve ever seen?'”
George M Taber
Listen to George Taber’s Interview
About George Taber
George M. Taber, the author of A Toast to Bargain Wines: How Innovators, iconoclasts, and winemaking revolutionaries are changing the way the world drinks (Scribner, November 2011), spent forty years as a reporter and editor, primarily on business affairs, before turning his attention to writing wine books.
He was National Economic Correspondent and Business Editor for Time magazine and then started the weekly newspaper NJBIZ, which covered business news in New Jersey. He sold the company in 2005 to concentrate on wine writing.
In 1976 Taber published an account in Time about the famous Paris Tasting, when unknown California wines bested the best French wines in a blind Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon tasting. Nearly 30 years later, he delved into the story again and wrote Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine, which became a best-selling book. It was selected as the wine book of the year by Decanter, the British wine magazine. The movie Bottle Shock was loosely based on the story.
Taber has also written To Cork or Not to Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle (Scribner, October 2007). The book won the Jane Grigson Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and was a finalist for best wine book of the year by both the André Simon Award and the James Beard Award.
In October 2009, Taber published In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism. In researching the book he traveled for six months to twelve top wine regions in the world. A Californian by birth, Taber graduated from Georgetown University and received a Masters degree from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. He and his wife now split their year between two islands, Vero Beach, Florida, and Block Island, Rhode Island.
Connect with George Taber
Website: georgemtaber.com