Chateau Montelena
On a May afternoon in Paris in 1976, a Calistoga Chardonnay beat the best white Burgundies France could field — blind, judged by the French themselves. This is the château it came from.
The Judgment of Paris is the hinge of American wine history: a 1976 blind tasting where nine French judges, ranking the wines unseen, placed Chateau Montelena’s 1973 Chardonnay — made by Miljenko “Mike” Grgich — above every white Burgundy on the table. The shock rewired the wine world’s assumptions overnight, put a bottle in the Smithsonian, and eventually a movie (“Bottle Shock”) in theaters. Your own Chardonnay history page tells the story; this is where it happened.
The place itself outdoes the legend: a 19th-century stone château built into a Calistoga hillside, ivy on the castle walls, overlooking a serene Chinese-garden lake with red pavilions and arched bridges. The house still leads with Chardonnay and estate Cabernet, and tasting either on this ground is the closest wine gets to visiting a battlefield where the battle was won with corkscrews.
What to expect
| Go for | The white that won Paris — taste Chardonnay where the 1976 upset was grown |
|---|---|
| The history | 1973 Chardonnay by Mike Grgich, first among the whites at the Judgment of Paris; a bottle rests in the Smithsonian |
| The place | A castle-like 1880s stone château above a garden lake with red pavilions — worth the drive on looks alone |
| From the valley | The pilgrimage north — Calistoga crowns the Napa Valley; pair with Stag’s Leap for both halves of the Judgment |
Featured videos
The upset of 1976, retold — the château, the lake, and the Chardonnay that beat Burgundy, on film.
More of this direction
The other north doors on the shortlist — every one worth the drive back to Temecula.