Judgment of Sauternes: A semi blind tasting was held at Château Guirard in Sauternes earlier this month to determine which of the two regions still rules supreme. 20 wines each of the same vintage, 1995 were tasted blind by a panel of judges from Europe and outside. Here is my analysis… Subhash Arora

Californian wines have again beaten their French cousins in a semi blind tasting organized by the Grand Jury European (GJE) at Ch. Guirard in Sauternes. GJE is a collective group of wine experts with a permanent panel of judges. It was founded in 1996 by Francois Mauss, who was so peeved at seeing Robert Parker's scores displayed in Paris wine shops that he decided to set up a group of European panelists who would have a say in what Europeans buy.

The Judgment of Sauternes is the first edition of such comparative tastings, to be carried annually. The primary aim of his event was to ‘right the wrongs of Steven Spurrier's recent Re-Judgment of Paris'. The founder Chairman Mauss was unhappy with his recreation of the Judgment of Paris tasting in May this year, celebrating 30 years of the original tasting. He claims that dual locations and an unfair selection of vintages and tasters gave erroneous results. Vintage 1996 is selected for next year for this semi blind tasting. The tasters knew which wines were being tasted but each one had a blind and random sequence to taste. The tasting had to finish in 2 hours.

In the famous blind tasting of Paris conducted by Steven Spurrier in 1976, Stag's Leap '73 Cabernet and Ch. Montelena '73 Chardonnay had created history when they beat their top French equivalents in the blind tasting.

At this month's tasting all wines were from the 1995 vintage- rated as excellent for California and very good for Bordeaux. It was selected so one would not raise fingers at picking unfair and non comparable vintage. This would also neutralize the advantages that younger wines had in the historical tasting of 1976, since Californian counterparts are supposedly drinkable much earlier.

GJE invited experts from all over the world, including France, USA, Italy, Spain and UK. Jurors included regular GJE members like Joel Payne (an American settled in Germany ) who is the co-author of the German Wine Guide and Managing Editor of Wine Business International, and guests like Jeff Leve, Robert Parker's colleague.

Of the top five producers awarded, the first three turned out to be Californians. The winner, Abreu of Montelena Ranch was followed by Beringer and Pahlmeyer, all from Napa. In fact, all but 2 of the 20 Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot wines selected from Napa Valley, showing the monolithic stature it has acquired during the last 30 years. Chateau Valandraud, the Grand Cru producer from St. Emilion was at number four, with Chateau Latour right behind.

Scores awarded by the GJE jury were even more in favour of the Californians. Only two of the top ten wines from Bordeaux made the cut with Trotanoy (joint 6) and Chateau Palmer at ninth spot. None of the First Growths, Gran Cru A producers of St. Emilion or the world famous and supposedly the most expensive wine, Petrus ( with our apology to the Screaming Eagle!) shared the top Honours.

Here are our analyses of the results. I have taken the prices in US $s from my favourite site www.wine-searcher.com. I have removed the extremes to define the price range. They are indicative only as some are without taxes whereas others may include taxes. However, we are interested in the average price for comparisons.