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FROM THE EDITORS

By Julie Coe, Editorial Director

Illustration: Joanna Neborsky

The results of the 1976 blind tasting that placed Napa and Sonoma wines over prestigious Bordeaux and Burgundies are so famous now that it’s hard to fathom how little stir the rout first made. The winemakers themselves didn’t hear about it until two weeks later, when journalist George Taber’s small article in Time magazine, titled “Judgement of Paris,” alerted the world. Fifty years later, Jay Cheshes writes about the impact that the ad-hoc Parisian gathering had on California winemaking and how it continues to resonate with both winemakers and collectors today.

Seventies nostalgia is also resurfacing in Ilaria Icardi’s jewelry. We take a look at Series 05, the latest from the Prada womenswear designer’s namesake line.

COLLECTOR’S CELLAR

By Jay Cheshes

At the 1976 Judgement of Paris, held in honor of the U.S. bicentennial, French and Californian wines were pitted against each other. © Bella Spurrier

It’s been 50 years since a blind tasting in Paris turned the wine world upside down. Back then, in 1976, French wine was king; France’s wine regions set the standard for the rest of the world. In California, serious winemaking was just getting started. As the US prepared to celebrate its bicentennial that summer, Steven Spurrier, a British expat with a small wine school in Paris, L’Académie du Vin, and an adjacent wine shop, Les Caves de la Madeleine, devised a marketing scheme to mark the milestone—a deliberately provocative tasting, pitting upstart California wineries against top French producers.

TREASURE HUNT

By Julie Coe

Courtesy of Ilaria Icardi

In addition to her day job as a womenswear director at Prada, Ilaria Icardi designs jewelry for her namesake line. Her latest offering, Series 05, draws on ’70s vibes and her own family histories.

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THE GLOBAL AGENDA

Vasily Kandinsky’s 1936 painting “Dominant Curve,” on view in “Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector” at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Courtesy of Guggenheim New York

April 25. “Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector” opens at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
April 28. “Andrew Wyeth: Boundaries or Windows” opens at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
April 29. “Ron Mueck” opens at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
April 30. “Anni Albers: Constructing Textiles” opens at the Lower Belvedere in Vienna.
May 1. “Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawings from John Ashbery’s Collection” opens at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
May 1. “The Occupied City” opens at the Museum of the City of New York in New York City.
May 1. “Old Masters, New Amsterdam” opens at the New York Historical in New York City.

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