ASA Region 3 Event Recap
Wine & Wisdom Winning Story
The Judgment of Paris: An Appraiser’s Cautionary Tale by Lily Yu
Wine & Wisdom
Virtual Event Recap
Event Date: May 13, 2026
Celebrating: The experience, camaraderie, and professional wisdom of the ASA appraisal community.
Virtual toast celebrating the appraisal profession community within ASA.
A Message from Bharat Kanodia, Region 3 Governor
ASA Region 3 members gathered virtually on May 13 for “Wine & Wisdom,” celebrating the experience and camaraderie of our appraisal community. More than 20 members from every discipline joined from across the U.S., throughout California, and as far as Bulgaria to share stories of lessons learned, challenges faced, and memorable moments along their professional journeys. While our specialties vary, we are united by a shared commitment to excellence in valuation and continuous growth.
Congratulations to Lily Yu and Corinne Cain, ASA, of the NorCal Chapter, Personal Property, Fine Art, for winning top honors—and bragging rights—for the evening’s best stories.
Thank you to all who participated in making ASA Region 3 such a vibrant and engaging community.
Yours truly,
Bharat Kanodia,
Region 3 Governor
Winning Story
The Judgment of Paris: An Appraiser’s Cautionary Tale
By Lily Yu
May 24, 1976—exactly fifty years ago this month. Nine French wine judges gather in Paris for what they assume will be a pleasant afternoon confirming what everyone already knows: French wines reign supreme.
Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, presents these distinguished judges with a blind tasting. Their job? Appraise twenty wines—ten whites, ten reds—and rank them by quality. Simple enough, right? The methodology seemed sound: blind evaluation, structured scoring, expert credentials.
But here’s where it gets interesting. These judges weren’t just tasting wine—they were performing valuations. They were asked to assess authenticity, quality, and value based on observable characteristics. They examined color, smell, taste, structure, and finish.
The stakes? For France: validation of centuries of viticultural dominance. For California: the possibility of never being taken seriously as a producer of quality wines.
Now, almost every appraiser has dealt with confirmation bias. These French judges felt they knew which wines would be superior. They’d spent lifetimes establishing the canon—Bordeaux, Burgundy, the gold standard. California? The region was only twenty or so years into serious winemaking. It would be like claiming a painting made in Oakland a few months ago was equal in value to a Rembrandt.
One judge, tasting a Napa Chardonnay, declared: “Ah, back to France!” Another, sipping a French Burgundy, dismissed it as “definitely California.”
When Spurrier revealed the results, the room went silent. The top-ranked white? Chateau Montelena 1973, Napa Valley. The top red? Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973, also Napa.
One judge literally tried to steal back her scorecard. Imagine trying to retrieve your appraisal report mid-auction because you’d just attributed a student work to a master! But the press had the scores—there was no taking it back.
This story demonstrates that methodology matters. Blind evaluation removed the prejudice of labels and pedigree—the wine equivalent of removing attribution before assessment.
Provenance assumptions are dangerous. These judges believed French terroir guaranteed superiority, just as we might overvalue something based purely on documented ownership history.
Expertise doesn’t eliminate bias. These were legitimate experts who let preconceptions override empirical observation—they attributed based on what they expected to taste, not what was actually in the glass.
This single event revolutionized the wine world’s appraisal standards. California wines went from “curiosity” to “blue-chip” overnight. Napa Valley became prime real estate. The 1976 tasting essentially reattributed an entire region’s work from “school of” to “comparable to the masters.”
Time magazine covered it! The world was shocked! French wine culture experienced what we now call a “market correction.”
So here’s your takeaway…
The Judgment of Paris proves that even experts with impeccable credentials can spectacularly misvalue something when they let bias override methodology.
Those French judges walked into that tasting expecting to confirm French supremacy and instead accidentally launched California into wine stardom.
