What is now becoming a regular event at Musings on the Vine is the Napa-Bordeaux Shootout.

This past weekend, on October 13, 2018, installment number eight took place, with France just edging out Napa for bragging rights to yet another win.

The results of the tasting were thus:

Well, as you can see, this was a close contest. Despite Napa having wines scoring in second and third place, France managed to garner more overall points.
So, after eight installments, the results stack up as follows:
France’s lead is a strong 6 – 2 in overall wins. Point-wise, the French have 282 points to Napa’s 238 points, a widening margin.

A few observations are in order…

• In prior meetings, it was clear that Napa was sometimes hampered by wines that did not age as well as their French counterparts. At this installment, to “level the playing field,” wines were staggered in age, with the French wines being on average a decade older than their American competitors. It appears to have helped the Americans by keeping the scoring close.
• None of the wines had scored over 90 points when they were first reviewed upon release. Also, none of the wines are considered “trophy” wines. Despite their lack of “star power,” the flight showed that you don’t always need to be a star to shine.
• I was again pleased with the 1989 vintage. The Olivier showed considerable aging potential despite being 29 years old. Another surprise? The 1988 Gloria… tons of aging potential left in this wine, a true testament to the quality of St. Julien Bordeaux.

Where does it go from here? Well if history repeats itself, I imagine a ninth match-up in the not too distant future…

Should be fun, as usual!