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George M. Taber
George M. Taber, the author of
Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the 1976 Paris Tasting that
Revolutionized Wine (Scribner, September 2005), has interviewed
presidents, dictators, corporate tycoons and even the Beatles in a journalism
career that lasted more than 40 years. But the most important event he ever
covered was a wine tasting in Paris in 1976. Nine eminent French wine experts,
in a blind tasting, selected in both the red wine and the white wine
competition unknown California wines as better than the best French wines. It
turned out to be the turning point in the history of California wine and
launched the globalization of wine that we know today. Food critic Anthony Dias
Blue called the event “the most talked about wine tasting of the [20th]
century.” At the time Taber was a Paris correspondent for Time
magazine, and he was the only journalist at the event, which was staged by an
Englishman who owned a wine store and school in Paris. It was Taber's story in
Time that broke the news to the world and caused oenophiles around the
world to take their first serious look at California wines. Taber spent 21
years at Time as a reporter, writer and editor. He had assignments for
Time in New York, Bonn, Paris, Houston and Washington, D.C. before
being named a senior editor at the magazine. For six years he was Time's
business editor and was later editor of the World section. In 1988, Taber left
Time to start njbiz, a weekly newspaper that covers New Jersey
business. He sold the paper in 2005. A Californian by birth, which gave him his
first interest in wine, Taber graduated from Georgetown University and got a
masters degree from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
In
addition to Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the 1976 Paris
Tasting that Revolutionized Wine he is also the author of To Cork or
Not To Cork. Mr. Taber will discuss the Paris Tasting of 1976 and will have
copies of his books for sale and signing.
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