(Wine-Searcher) - Stag's Leap wasn't the first wine to topple a First Growth at an international tasting.

 

Once upon a time, a leading British wine expert tasted a New World Cabernet Sauvignon alongside the same vintage of a Bordeaux First Growth. He decided to his amazement that the New World Cabernet was every bit as good as its august French rival. Sound familiar?

Not quite; the expert concerned was the leading wine writer of his day, Andre Simon, and the tasting occurred in 1964, more than a decade before Steven Spurrier hosted his fabled Judgement of Paris. The wine concerned wasn't Napa Valley's Stag's Leap – it was 1949 McDonald's Cabernet Sauvignon, from the Church Road winery in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay, set against a Château Margaux.