WUI (Writing under the influence)

Almost one year ago to the date, I said the following in this post:

Why would we want to reconcile with the French anyway now that we know why they opposed the war ? Maybe it's just me, but after learning that France is America's oldest enemy and knowing how badly it screwed Poland during WWII, I just don't understand why we even care any more. Is French wine so good?

For me it was a rhetorical question. Even if they were our best friends, their wine would still be over-rated. Considering how arrogant the French are and, more importantly, how detrimental their government's actions are to our foreign policy, I would rather stop drinking wine altogether if I couldn't buy anything else.

But today, via Powerline blog, I came across a review of what must be a very interesting book:

In 1976, a Paris wine shop arranged a tasting as a gimmick to introduce some California wines; the judges, of course, were all French and militantly chauvinistic. Only one journalist bothered to attend, a Time correspondent, looking for a possible American angle. The story he got turned out to be a sensation. In both red and white blind tastings, an American wine won handily: a 1973 Stag's Leap cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena chardonnay. When the story was published the following week, it stunned both the complacent French and fledgling American wine industries—and things have never been the same since. Taber, the Time man, has fashioned an entertaining, informative book around this event. Following a brisk history of the French-dominated European wine trade with a more detailed look at the less familiar American effort, he focuses on the two winning wineries, both of which provide him with lively tales of colorful amateurs and immigrants making good, partly through willingness to experiment with new techniques. While the outrage of some of the judges is funny, this is a serious business book, too, sure to be required reading for American vintners and oenophiles.

So there we have it. I knew it was more about snobbery than just a good taste. What I don't understand is what are certain francophiles thinking.