Scored Blind, Counted Twice
The 1976 Paris tasting, for a longtime client
The ask
Twenty years ago an accountant who had just opened her own practice became our first client, and she stayed. She retires after this tax season. She loves Napa Cabernet and long dinners with friends, and she has never trusted a total she could not check herself. About $5,000.
The gift
The ten reds poured blind in Paris in 1976, in current vintages from the same estates, from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V., Ridge Monte Bello, and Heitz Martha's Vineyard to Mouton Rothschild and Haut-Brion. A Master Sommelier pours them in sleeves for eleven guests at home, on a weeknight she chooses. Each guest scores out of twenty, and the cards are counted by average, as in Paris, and by rank, as at the 2006 rematch.
Why it's extraordinary
A statistical reading of the 1976 cards later separated only three of the ten wines, and when the same wines were poured again in 2006, California took the top five places. The eleven seats match the Paris panel.
The moment
The sleeves come off only after the last card is counted both ways, and the table stays late over ten empty glasses.
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