In case you haven’t read any newspapers or magazines for the last five years, you may not realize that California now produces remarkable red and white wines, many as good or better than their French counterparts. There seems to be a new and important California vineyard emerging every week with a magnificent offering. Some of the new vineyards are controlled by the big distilleries; some are small, independents specializing in two or three types of wines, but all share the same enthusiasm, growing expertise, and intense dedication that have made California a challenger to France as the most important wine producing area in the world.

Our taste test was restricted to three whites and three reds. In each case, we tried to compare a similar and distinguished French wine to its California counterpart. In the reds we compared a ‘75 Spartan Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to a ‘74 Lynch-Bages: a ‘76 Feisty Brothers Zinfandel to a ‘72 Chateau Calon Segur, and a ‘75 Petit Sirah from Siesta Valley against a Nuits-St.-Georges, ‘75.

The whites were a ‘76 Charles Brut Pinot Chardonnay matched against a ‘75 Puligny-Montrachet of Ramonet; a Chenin Blanc ‘74 from Echo Mountain vs. a Meursault from Les Charmes; and a ‘76 Riesling of Pini Brothers against a ‘75 Pouilly-Fuissé from Louis Latour.

The wines had their labels removed, were put in carafes, and were coded, so that all the comparisons were “blind,” with wines known only by their number. The wines were judged for their overall character, bouquet, breed, depth of flavor, finesse, delicacy, firmness, body, suppleness, clarity, richness, dryness, tannic content, roundness, balance, freshness, maturity, style, grace, honor, gentility, pedigree, nobility, loyalty, courage, and philosophical significance.

The results are on the following page.