Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Judgment of Paris

There are few moments in the history of wine that feel as cinematic as the Judgment of Paris.

On May 24, 1976, in a salon at the InterContinental Hotel in Paris, eleven French judges gathered around a table lined with glasses, notebooks, and baskets of bread. British wine merchant Steven Spurrier had organized a blind tasting to celebrate the American bicentennial, placing some of France’s most revered wines beside a handful of little-known bottles from California. The assumption, of course, was that France would win.

Instead, California stunned the room.

When the scores were tallied, Château Montelena took first place in the Chardonnay flight, while Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon outranked Bordeaux’s grandest names in the red wine category. The result sent a tremor through the wine world. French critics dismissed it. Some judges protested. But the message was unmistakable: Napa Valley had arrived.

Fifty years later, that story remains one of the most important in modern wine history, and in spring 2026, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is celebrating the anniversary in the most fitting way possible, around the table.

In partnership with The Bastion Collection, the acclaimed hospitality group behind the Michelin-starred Le Jardinier restaurants, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, is hosting a three-city dinner series in New York City, Miami, and Houston. Each evening will pair a five-course menu with a rare four-vintage vertical tasting of S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon, including the newly released 2023 vintage.

For anyone interested in wine travel, Michelin-starred dining, or the enduring mythology of Napa Valley, these are among the most compelling culinary events of the season.

For travelers considering making a weekend of it, each dinner also offers an excuse to experience one of the country’s most compelling food cities. From Midtown Manhattan and the Miami Design District to Houston’s Museum District, the series unfolds in neighborhoods filled with some of the best luxury hotels, restaurants, and cultural attractions in the country.

Even beyond the Judgment of Paris, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars occupies a singular place in Napa Valley. Founded in 1970, the estate helped define the Stags Leap District style of Cabernet Sauvignon: powerful but never heavy, structured yet remarkably graceful. Its wines are often described as balancing richness and elegance, with dark fruit, fine tannins, and the sort of restraint that allows them to age beautifully for decades.

The winery’s estate vineyards, S.L.V. and Fay, are among the most celebrated in Napa Valley, but S.L.V. remains the most storied. Framed by the dramatic volcanic palisades of the Stags Leap District, the vineyard produces Cabernet Sauvignon with a distinctive combination of depth, minerality, and softness. It is that unmistakable character that first captivated the judges in Paris in 1976, and that continues to define the wines being poured at these dinners today.

The partnership feels especially fitting because Le Jardinier approaches French cuisine in much the same way Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars approaches Cabernet Sauvignon: with reverence for tradition, but no desire to be confined by it.

At the center of The Bastion Collection is Culinary Director Alain Verzeroli, a longtime protégé of Joël Robuchon. Across the group’s restaurants, French technique remains the foundation, though it is expressed with a lighter, more contemporary hand that feels especially suited to Le Jardinier’s elegant, vegetable-forward style.

The Bastion Collection has become one of the most influential names in modern fine dining, operating fourteen distinctive concepts across New York, Miami, Houston, and Geneva and earning ten Michelin stars and three Michelin Keys.

The Judgment of Paris did more than launch California wine onto the world stage. It changed the way people thought about wine altogether.

Before 1976, the idea that an American Cabernet Sauvignon could surpass the great estates of Bordeaux seemed almost unthinkable. Yet Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ victory forced consumers, sommeliers, collectors, and restaurateurs to look beyond France and reconsider what greatness in wine might mean.

The aftermath shaped the future of Napa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon plantings expanded dramatically. Regions around the world, from Washington State to Chile, increasingly embraced the varietal. Even in France, attitudes shifted. Within two years, Philippe de Rothschild, initially outraged by the result, had joined forces with Robert Mondavi to create Opus One.

And when the wines were tasted again in 2006, thirty years later, California once again prevailed, claiming the top five places in the Cabernet tasting.

Today, the S.L.V. vineyard in the Stags Leap District remains one of Napa Valley’s most revered sites. Under the direction of Winemaker Marcus Notaro, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars continues to produce Cabernet Sauvignons known for their balance of richness and restraint, softness and structure.

The first dinner in the series takes place on Thursday, May 7, at Le Jardinier in Midtown Manhattan.

Held in Sereine, the restaurant’s elegant private dining room, the evening begins at 6:30 p.m. and unfolds around a communal table beneath soft lighting. Le Jardinier has long been one of New York’s most polished dining rooms.

Executive Chef Bastian Schenk has created a five-course menu that feels unmistakably springlike. The first course pairs lightly smoked green asparagus with apple tartare, cockles, and verjus sabayon alongside KARIA Chardonnay.

From there, the dinner moves into deeper, more layered flavors: pan-roasted lobster with black pepper shellfish civet and roasted bok choy paired with the 2013 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon; confit beef ravioli with sweet spices, consommé, and spring vegetables paired with both the 2016 and 2008 vintages; and finally hazelnut-crusted pigeon with confit leg and vegetable mille-feuille alongside the newly released 2023 S.L.V.

Dessert, called La Griotte, arrives as a molten chocolate cake with toasted white chocolate mousse and sour cherry gelée.

The New York dinner is hosted by Marcus Notaro. Check availability of OpenTable.

For travelers planning to make a weekend of it, Midtown Manhattan is also one of the best places to stay, some of New York’s finest hotels including The Waldorf Astoria and The Peninsula New York are in Midtown.

One week later, on Thursday, May 14, the series moves south to Le Jardinier Miami in the Miami Design District.

The restaurant, with its soaring ceilings, tropical greenery, and luminous interiors. Here, Chefs James Friedberg and Mario Da Silva have designed a menu that leans into brighter, more coastal flavors.

The evening begins with dorade crudo dressed with ajo blanco, pickled grapes, and dill oil, paired with the 2023 KARIA Chardonnay. A seared diver scallop follows, served with carrot purée, mushroom ragù, and crisp crumbs beside the 2008 S.L.V. Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

The heart of the menu is a progression of richer dishes: lamb saddle with warm fava bean salad and fried shallots paired with the 2013 vintage, followed by beef short rib glazed with miso-port and served with broccoli purée, croquette, and horseradish alongside both the 2016 and 2023 S.L.V. Estate Cabernet Sauvignons.

Dessert, called The Butterfly, finishes the meal with yuzu mousse, raspberry compote, and pistachio sablé.

Marcus Notaro will also host the Miami dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Check availability of Seven Rooms.

Set against the Miami Design District’s galleries, palm-lined promenades, and luminous boutiques, the evening also lends itself beautifully to a longer stay, with nearby luxury hotels including The Miami Beach EDITION and Setai Hotel Miami.

The final dinner in the series takes place on Thursday, June 4, at Le Jardinier MFAH, located inside the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

There may be no more fitting setting for the conclusion of the series than a restaurant inside one of the country’s leading museums. The evening begins at 7 p.m. and will be hosted by Luis Contreras.

Surrounded by museums, sculpture gardens, and broad, oak-lined boulevards, Houston’s Museum District also makes an appealing place to linger for the weekend, with nearby luxury hotels including Hotel ZaZa Museum District and The Post Oak Hotel at Uptown Houston.

Reservations for the dinners are available through OpenTable, Resy, and SevenRooms, depending on the location. Pricing for the series starts at $295.

For travelers planning to attend, it is worth booking both dinner reservations and nearby hotels early, particularly in New York and Miami, where spring weekends fill quickly.

Luxury wine dinners are hardly rare. But very few offer the opportunity to experience a living piece of wine history.

For travelers planning a spring trip to New York, Miami, or Houston, these dinners offer something unusually memorable: an intimate evening that blends Michelin-level dining, one of Napa Valley’s most iconic Cabernet Sauvignons, and the story of the bottle that helped redefine American wine.

Fifty years after the Judgment of Paris, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is still doing what it has always done best: proving that great wines do not simply preserve history. They continue to create it.