(NBCNews) - Forty years ago today, it was the mic drop heard around the wine world.

That pivotal moment on May 24, 1976, when a panel of esteemed French experts at an exclusive blind tasting wholeheartedly — and unwittingly — favored "unknown" Californian wines over their own old-growth Bordeaux and white Burgundies.

France losing to the Americans at wine was like America losing to France at monster truck racing, cowboy movies, and chicken and dumplings — all at the same time.

Outraged, France never fully accepted the verdict, while Napa Valley wines exploded onto the global market. Forty years later, has the playing field leveled for these two wine-producing giants? And has France started to play nice?

Before the Paris tasting, there were fewer than 350 wineries in California. That number has since rocketed to over 4,000, with more than a million acres dedicated to grape growth in California alone, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The industry — which employs over 50,000 people across America — has been on a steady upward path, with 2015 marking the 23rd consecutive year of growth. American wine exports brought in $1.5 billion last year, according to the Wine Institute, making America the world's fourth-largest producer of wine. (And America isn't just making wine, it is drinking it — leading the world in consumption, guzzling 13 percent of the world's vino.)