This is a great time to be interested in wine. For those of us who geek out on wine it feels like we’re riding the birth throes of a monstrous newborn galaxy as the wine map expands to gobble up most of the world. Only a few years ago New World wines were, well, new—Napa, Oregon, Barossa Valley, Australia, Mendoza, Argentina, and Marlborough, New Zealand muscled the Old World out of the way and established themselves as part of the canon. Today, not only do we now have wines to taste though out the U.S. from Idaho to Missouri, but we can look forward to Chinese wine, Indian wine, and wine from the U.K., among others, each with their own character and claim to authenticity.
Yet, as I sample wines hither and yon, if I’m really pressed to say which wines stand out as the best, I honestly have to say it’s the old world wines that remain the most satisfying—and it’s not even close. For Pinot Noir, it’s Burgundy. For Cabernet/Merlot, it’s Bordeaux. Nothing beats Nebbiolo from Barolo, Riesling from Germany, or Syrah from the Northern Rhone. Despite the high prices, short supply, and inconsistent quality, when they’re right they are incomparable.
And this is not because I grew up on European wine. I didn’t. California wine has always been familiar and accessible, but with a few exceptions not preeminent.
There is just no substitute for hundreds of years of experience in matching grapes to place, and the difference that makes, it seems to me, is obvious.
We are coming up on the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris when California wines first went up against the European Kings and Queens in a blind tasting and allegedly knocked them off their thrones. That was the beginning of this expansion of the wine world and the expansion is wonderful. But those old world beauties are still standing, buffeted by the winds of global commerce, but still distinguished, nobly carrying on their traditions.
It sounds a bit staid and stuffy to say “may it ever be so” but ….
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Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 
Re: Judgment of Paris. There is no doubt California wines made a great showing and impressed the high priests of French wine. However, it would be misleading, if not a gross distortion, to say Californian wines knocked the “Kings and Queens
off their thrones”. Three French wines–Mouton Rothschild, Haut-Brion and Montrose were rated and selected as first or second choice by at least 5 judges out of 9. Stags Leap did very well, consistently ranked by 5 judges in the top 3. Numerically, this showing allowed them to edge out both Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Chateau Montrose by a mere fraction of a point. (It should also be noted that 3 judges ranked Stags Leap towards the bottom of the pack–one of these rankings was removed because the judge was not French.)
The plot thickens when one considers that Warren Winiarski’s right hand man at Stags Leap, Andre Tchelistcheff, was european (Russian), and well trained in oenology and agronomy (Institute Pasteur). His expertise and knowledge of French wines came in handy when he engineered his Bordeaux-inspired wine in the New World. In fact, many judges thought his wine was a late harvest Bordeaux, fooling the judges, as it were, by blurring the lines between and Old and New World with masterful mimicry!
On the other hand, it is fair to say that Chateau Montelena, in the category of whites, did some serious “beheading”.