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Sip Sip Hooray PodcastAuthor: Mary Babbitt and Mary Orlin
Sip Sip Hooray! A Podcast From Mary Babbitt and Mary Orlin, Where Wine Is Always Fun, Tasty And Inspirational Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Judgment of Paris at 50: Still Relevant? Esther Mobley’s take plus her 10 Years at the San Francisco Chronicle Covering a Changing Wine Industry, Ep 126
Episode 126
Wednesday, 22 April, 2026
We’re popping the cork on a milestone moment, the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, the legendary blind tasting that shocked the wine world and put California wine on the global map in a big way. To help us unpack what it all meant then and what it means now, we’re joined by wine journalist Esther Mobley, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle. We’ll chat about how that legendary showdown reshaped the wine scene, what’s changed over the last five decades in California and where things are headed next. Plus we’ll get to know Esther, her path into wine, what’s next for her since departing the Chronicle.During Esther’s tenure at the Chron, extreme wildfires raged through Napa,Sonoma, the Santa Cruz Mountains and more. Then came the pandemic when people stocked up on wine and booze to drink at home. Yet post pandemic America’s thirst for wine is drying up. We also saw Napa Valley becoming increasingly and some say too expensive to visit. As Esther leaves the Chronicle for a new chapter, she comments on the state of the California wine industry, bright spots amid all the gloom and doom and what she thinks will happen in the next decade in wine.
