The Judgment of Davis is a blind wine tasting event to be held at the University of California, Davis, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the May 1976 Judgment of Paris—the blind tasting that shocked the wine world by proving that top California wines could hold their own against prestigious bottles from Bordeaux and Burgundy.
A half-century later, the Judgment of Davis will put California’s wines to the test once again in a landmark event with a statistically rigorous format, co-organized by the Harvard Data Science Initiative and the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Viticulture & Enology at UC Davis, to be held in the Sensory Theater of the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.
In the final tastings to be held on May 18, 2026, 25 wines will be judged in person by a diverse panel of invited experts from across the wine world. A limited number of ticketed guests, and a small handful of invited media, will also get the opportunity to attend the finals, taste, and rate the same wines as the expert judges, and celebrate the wines as they are revealed.
Quick link: A few tickets are still available and can be purchased here.
The final round of blind tastings in the Judgment of Davis will be accompanied by a full day of events on the UC Davis campus surrounding the tastings. Ticket-holders are invited to participate in a morning workshop on “The Arts and Sciences of Wine Judgment”; casual lunch; an evening reception following the tastings, where the winners of the Judgment of Davis will be announced and honored; and a screening of the short film “The Swirled Cup,” with Andrea Robinson MS, which takes viewers through the story of the original 1976 Judgment.
In a departure from the format of the original Judgment of Paris, challengers in the Judgment of Davis come not just from California and France, but also from other top wine regions. The 25 wines in the finals—12 Cabernet Sauvignon-based reds and 13 Chardonnay-based whites—were selected by a panel of expert judges in two initial rounds of blind judging (April 25–30, 2026) out of nearly 300 entries from a wide variety of regions.
Statisticians, sensory scientists, and economists will further analyze the results and present them in a more detailed format two days later, on the afternoon of May 20, 2026, as part of the 2026 Vine to Mind Symposium at the University of California, Davis, co-organized by the Harvard Data Science Initiative and the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Viticulture & Enology at UC Davis, with support from the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science.
Additional information about the Judgment of Davis:
Public admission to the Judgment of Davis: A very limited number of tickets to the Judgment of Davis final round at the Robert Mondavi Sensory Theater on May 18, 2026, will be released to the public in stages, pending availability. Separate tickets are required for the red and white tastings. Tickets include admission to the full program of events on May 18, including the morning workshop, a casual lunch, and the evening reception. Individuals or organizations wishing to purchase tickets can visit the Judgment of Davis ticketing portal.
Wine submissions to the Judgment of Davis competition: Submissions are now closed. We have left the submission site intact for archival and reference purposes.
Vine to Mind Symposium: Individuals or organizations wishing to attend Vine to Mind are invited to visit the Vine to Mind symposium ticketing portal.
Media requests: please contact Jen Cortellini.
Logistical and other queries about the May 18 event: please contact Lissi Knell, Harvard Data Science Initiative.
