Clearly some have an emotional or economic interest in minimising or even denying the importance of these consumer oriented blind tasting competitions The Emperor Has No Clothes The owners of 30 of the best wines in the world in the judgment of a Champagne company president were invited to a party in 1997 The event was organized by Jean Claude Rouzaud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his presidency of Champagne Louis Roederer Half of his selections were from France I m a chauvinist and a nationalist he explained Before agreeing to participate the Bordeaux first growths set some conditions the foremost being that no comparative tasting with their international competition would be held They didn t even want to be included in a group photo with their colleagues from other wine regions although they finally reluctantly agreed But getting the Bordelais to have their wines served with the others that was out of the question said a Roederer spokesperson So the event took place in two separate parts first a dinner featuring the Bordeaux wines then a tasting the next day with all the other wines but no Bordeaux They are cowards said a non Bordeaux producer But the host said I understand them He explained that They feel that when you are first growths you are untouchable Their problem is that they actually know better They and the other named growth vineyards have a carefully cultivated image of superiority This is a marketing advantage worth an incredibly enormous sum of money every year However they frequently fail to perform well in blind comparisons and realize how vulnerable they are to exposure and the destruction of their vaulted and very valuable reputations Because of this the named growths 1 want to avoid comparisons and 2 try to discredit the results of such comparisons Who can blame them Those results can cost them a fortune in lost revenue But the consumer benefits immensely Party in Paris Wine Spectator 15 11 97