On May 24, 1976, a British wine merchant named Steven Spurrier organized a wine tasting in Paris, pitting California cabernets and chardonnays against their French counterparts.
He assembled a distinguished panel of wine experts, all French. The results of the blind tasting – dubbed the “Judgment of Paris” — made international headlines: To everyone’s astonishment, the judges preferred the California wines.
Fast forward to June 2, 2010. That’s when Pavle Milic of FnB hopes to rock the wine world with what may someday be known as the Judgment of Scottsdale. He’s put together his own group of high-profile judges, who’ll be blind-tasting Arizona wines and their global counterparts in a contest he’s hoping will put Arizona on the world wine map.
Of course, Milic is hardly a disinterested spectator. FnB has an all-Arizona wine list, a daring move that’s already gotten him national attention in the New York Times.
Milic has asked Arizona’s wine growers to send him their best bottles for sampling. Then, in a few weeks, he and other local oenophiles will do a blind-tasting, choosing the state’s five best reds and whites. Once those are selected, he’ll match them up with others from around the globe, of similar style and price.
The judges include Gary Vaynerchuk, host of Wine Library TV; Laura Williamson, Master Sommelier; Tadeo Borchardt, a Napa Valley winemaker; Anne Rosenzweig, a top New York chef; Mark Tarbell , Arizona Republic wine columnist and owner of Tarbell’s restaurant; and Chris Bianco, the James Beard Award-winning chef of Pizzeria Bianco.
A confident Milic says he wouldn’t be surprised to see the contest bring about a “paradigm shift.” Arizona wines, he believes, are good enough to be part of the national and international wine community conversation.
The event, however, will not be open to the public.
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