Like so many before me, I had no idea the ways in which Stage Three of the Master of Wine examination, otherwise known as the Research Paper (RP), would challenge me. It was, without a doubt, one of the greatest obstacles in the MW process.
I must have proposed over 20 topics, ranging from sensory science and aesthetics to climate change. Not one got through my wall of mentors. In short, they lacked a clear focus and failed to convince my mentors that they mattered. I was advised to use my strengths—my background in literature—and stop trying to be a botanist, marketing analyst, or chemist. I began to consider some historical topics closer to home that would pose fewer issues with access to information, language barriers, and travel limitations for research.
One day, a colleague wondered if there was something I could research about Cabernet Sauvignon specifically—perhaps how it came to be the “it” variety in Napa. That sounded like a been-there-done-that topic if I’d ever heard one. But as I began to explore, it appeared very little had been written on Cabernet prior to the 1976 Judgment of Paris, the event that arguably secured its prized place in Napa. I was intrigued.
In 1961, Napa had 387 bearing acres of Cabernet Sauvignon (4.1% overall). From after World War II through the 1950s, Cabernet was just another wine grape, more likely to appear in a blend than on its own. Americans were sipping on sweet jug wine and showing an increasing preference for white grapes. Still, by 1976, Cabernet plantings had increased 12-fold (roughly 1,000%) to about 4,500 acres (approximately 14-fold when considering non-bearing acreage, bringing the total to slightly under 6,000 acres) and claimed nearly a quarter of all Napa’s vines—doubling that of second-place Chardonnay.
So, what happened? Why Cabernet? Why then?
Though many allude to the 1976 Judgment of Paris as the turning point for Napa Cabernet, its most significant growth
Ah, this is wonderful! Thank you so much for your research and for sharing it.