Bottle Shock (changing the world)

Our local paper today announced the death of Jim Barrett, who owned the Chateau Montelena winery in Calistoga. Jim Barrett is the dude who changed the world of wine. In 1975 if you wanted a bottle of fine wine, you bought from the expensive French, maybe from the Italians or Germans. That was what we did back then. I will not forget going into a liquor store with Dennis Renault and him asking the astonished owner what sort of wine went best with tamale pie. Then, in 1976, Jim Barrett sent some of his wine, made from Napa and Sonoma county grapes, to a blind tasting contest in France. To the shock of anyone interested, the California wines won. (This feat was duplicated about 20 years later by Robert Mondavi.) Now here is what matters. It's not that Napa and Sonoma became a world center of fine wine and overpriced cuisine, suddenly drawing tourists, billionaires and wine zombies from all over the world, although that has had its pleasant side effects. For example, superb bakeries. What matters is that it became clear that excellent wines could be made cheaply in places like Paso Robles and Oregon and Brazil and Australia. Wine drinkers were no longer confined to the wines of France. 

(You can revisit the taste test with the movie BOTTLE SHOCK.)