Shanghai marks Judgment of Paris wine event

On a recent Sunday, there was a lot of spitting going on at one of Shanghai's most sophisticated restaurants. That's because the California Wine Institute had gathered some of China's most sophisticated palates to taste 26 top chardonnays and cabernet sauvignons.

The event celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris - a 1976 blind tasting of wines that pitted a bunch of then globally unknown US winemakers against France's benchmark vintners.

Incredibly, the 1973 cabernet sauvignon from Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Napa, and the 1973 chardonnay from Chateau Montelena in Calistoga were judged superior to any French wine in the tasting.