Bakersfield 2009 Tasting: The New "1976 Paris" Tasting?

Continuing where the 1976 Paris tasting left off after the success of the fictionalized account Bottle Shock, this past summer, that growing hotbed of boutique winemaking, Bakersfield, CA is planning their own global wine showdown next month. First broken by the Dregs Report, this promises to be the biggest tasting since the last time Europe and America clashed in the wine business.

Steven Spurned of Spurned Bins Wine Shop in downtown Bakersfield has rounded up an All-Star cast of wine luminaries for his wine tasting of this decade of aughts.  In a bid to ignite sales of his one-off and final lot sales of wines, Spurned has wrangled up such magnum biggies such as Jancis Robinson & Robert M. Parker, Jr.; both of which declared that they would retaste the 2003 Château Pavie side-by-side…but this time it will be cage-match style with Michael Broadbent as the venerable referee! Broadbent will be sipping wine throughout, but has promised that it will only be Bordeaux vinified “prior to the last two centuries.”

Blogger heavyweights will also be participating with Tom Wark and Alder Yarrow (Twitter) facing off against Doug Cook (Twitter) and Steve Heimoff in a blind tasting challenge, replete with cheerleaders from Cleavage Creek Cellars and R&B Cellars.  Honorable HoseMaster of Wine, Ron Washam will drink to the officiate the competition and surreptitiously also judge the cheerleaders by speed-blogging for his site, while sipping some great Biodynamic Zin.  Craig Camp (Twitter) has promised to be on the sidelines, angrily denouncing the fall of the wine Blogosphere with a large glass of outstanding Napa Cabernet.

The true highlight of the event will be the Grand Tasting from midnight to 2am that night.  Hosted by the convivial Luscious Lush herself WineBratSF, it will feature 4,791 different wines in a self-pour format and all participants are encouraged to try each wine and rate them on a new 1000 point scale.  Since they are never used at a wine blogger event, no spit buckets will be provided.

As an added bonus, representatives from Nordstrom will be located in the center of the tasting room and spraying all nearby bloggers and critics with samples of various heavy perfumes in order to mimic the experience of entering  a wine country tasting room on a given weekend.  Wine gadget demonstrations will also be on display, including a live demonstration of the revolutionary new Fetal Flight® system.

As with all good things, this drinking competition tasting event must end at some point and the final bell will toll following the arm-wrestling competition between LENNDEVOURS and 1WineDude to determine the greatest wine-producing state on the East Coast.

I look forward to seeing you all in Bakersfield!