(Wine-Searcher) - A Judgment of Paris anniversary tasting sees Stag's Leap Wine Cellars jump ahead of the pack again.

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars has come top at a London re-run of the Judgement of Paris, 40 years on from the original tasting.

It was on 24th May 1976 that Steven Spurrier, then a long-haired young wine merchant in Paris, pitched American and French wines against each other in the tasting that made his reputation.

The 1973 Cabernet from the great Napa vineyard was the winner of the original Paris tasting, with Château Montelena coming top in the whites.

The events of that day – how the most influential French wine critics of the age scored Napa wines higher than their famous French counterparts – have passed into legend.

There have been many re-creations and anniversaries since then, most notably in 2006, when simultaneous tastings, with the original vintages, were staged in London and Napa.

In that tasting, against even the expectations of their winemakers, the California Cabernets – 1971 Ridge Monte Bello, 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, '71 Mayacamas, '70 Heitz, and '72 Clos du Val – were voted superior to their rivals in Bordeaux.

Last week – on Tuesday 24th May – several dozen wine enthusiasts sat down to a $1100-a-head dinner at 67 Pall Mall, the upmarket members-only club beloved of the wine trade.

All the original wines, in various vintages from 2001 to 2012, were tasted blind and ranked from one to 10.

The 2005 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars SLV was voted best red, and the 2011 Chalone Vineyard Chardonnay came top in the whites. California dominated the white lineup, clinching four of the top five places. The only Burgundy to make the top five was the Domaine Roulot.

In the reds, Château Haut-Brion took second place, followed by Ridge Monte Bello, Freemark Abbey and Château Montrose.

In the original tasting, Napa's Château Montelena took first place, with the Domaine Roulot Meursault second; the red line up had Stag's Leap first, followed by Mouton and Haut-Brion.

Remembering that day 40 years ago, Spurrier recalled the accidental nature of it all. Wanting to promote the Californian wines on his list, he had hit on the idea of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with a Franco-American tasting.

"We simply wanted to show that California could hold its own against the best of France. We had no idea they would be judged superior." He recounted the fury of some of the French judges, and how Odette Kahn, editor of La Revue du Vin de France (who had marked Stag's Leap and Montelena top) had demanded her notes back, accusing Spurrier of fixing the results.

He also remembered how the event might not have got any publicity at all had George Taber, the Paris correspondent for Time who coined the famous "Judgement of Paris" label, not turned up. "We invited him, and he said he'd come along if he had nothing better to do. So we were lucky it was a slow news day."

Richard Bampfield MW, one of the professional judges at the event, said it was hard to overestimate the effect the 1976 tasting had on the wine industry. "It was a massive boost to California, and a wake-up call to the French."

Of the wines, he said the tasting reinforced the notion that "great sites produce great wines – on both sides of the Atlantic".