The Académie du Vin was established in Paris in 1973 by Steven Spurrier as France's first private wine school. It is associated with the 1976 Judgement of Paris blind wine tasting which brought recognition to California wine

California wine

California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

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History

Spurrier had opened the Caves de la Madeleine, a wine store in 1970. In 1973, he partnered with International Herald Tribune

International Herald Tribune

The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...

 writer Jon Winroth

Jon Winroth

Jon Winroth Broneer was an American wine critic who lived and worked in France.- Biography :...

 and Patricia Gallagher

Patricia Gallagher

Patricia Gastaud-Gallagher was a director at the l'Academie du Vin and one of the 11 judges at the historic Judgment of Paris wine tasting event. She was also on the COPIA panel that oversaw the rematch on The Judgment of Paris 30th Anniversary...

 to open the school in a former locksmith shop adjacent to his store. Its original mission was to teach wine appreciation to ex-patriate British and Americans living in that city and instruction was in English. However, as interest from Parisians grew courses in French were also provided to meet the demand. In 1988, he sold the school to Baron Edmond Adolphe de Rothschilds Château Clarke

Château Clarke

Château Clarke is a wine property of Bordeaux of based in the Listrac-Médoc AOC and classified as Cru Bourgeois.-History:In the 12th century, the Cistercian monks of the Vertheuil Abbey established the first grapevine. The estate would permanently bear Tobie Clarke’s name in 1818, when the knight...

Judgment of Paris

The Académie du Vin was an early consideration for hosting the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting. As more interest grew in the event it was eventually deemed too small.

External links

• Académie du Vin.
• "Spurrier's Academie du Vin revived"