WINELINE 'SIDEWAYS' APPROACH TO 'JUDGMENT IN PARIS'?

Byline: LARRY LIPSON

It will be interesting to see what screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen does with George Taber's 2005 book "Judgment of Paris" (Scribner; $26).

Following the success of "Sideways," a story of two single guys on a Santa Barbara wine-country trip prior to one of them getting married, it's no wonder that a wine-related script about a historic event should receive more than the usual attention even before it's completed.

For those who don't know about the famous Paris wine tasting in 1976, it was when top-rated California cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays were judged by French experts against some of the best French equivalents -- red Bordeaux and white Burgundies.

And in both categories, a Californian won.

The bottles were, of course, wrapped so that the judges couldn't see their labels.

The characters in Taber's book are real, not fictional. But there's obvious drama in what happened.

Taber, then Time magazine's Paris correspondent, was the only journalist attending. The tasting was evidently considered a non-event.

But oh la la, did it ever shake up the wine world.

So who will play Steve

Spurrier, the brash English owner of a Paris wine shop who put on the tasting? And his then-partner, Patricia

Gastaud-Gallagher, who first suggested it?

How about the winners, both from Napa Valley wineries: Warren Winiarski, who submitted his 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars cabernet sauvignon, and Mike Grgich, who at that time was winemaker at Chateau Montelena and who submitted his '73 Montelena chardonnay?

And what about author Taber himself?

Will his character be the star of the movie?

Production, according to producer Elizabeth Fowler, should kick off in the fall of this year. But you know Hollywood. Postponements are part of its game. Stay tuned.

NEED BIG BUCKS: If you've just won the lottery, consider a $60,000 gift for five couples by Napa Valley's Poetry Inn and Cliff Lede Vineyards dubbed "the ultimate birthday bash."

It consists of three nights at the inn, where a seven-course dinner will be cooked by French Laundry celebrity chef Thomas Keller, then dinner at Keller's Bouchon or Ad Hoc restaurants, six bottles of Lede's Poetry cabernet sauvignon per couple (they sell for $120 per bottle and are said to be virtually unobtainable) and a first-growth, birth-year Bordeaux for the birthday celebrant. Oh yeah, and a limo. Info: [phone] or www.poetryinn.com.

NEW RELEASES: The onetime hot California Cooler which, at its peak sold 20 million cases a year, has returned as a fruit-flavored, wine-based beverage at $7.99 per six-pack. ... Uvada has released its 2002 merlot ($30). Info: [phone] or www.uvadawines.com. ... Top-of- the-line 2004 vintage releases from Sterling Vineyards are its reserve cabernet sauvignon ($75), reserve merlot ($65), SVR (Bordeaux blend, $50), Diamond Mountain Ranch cabernet sauvignon ($65) and Three Palms merlot ($55). Info: [phone] or www.sterlingvineyards.com. ... From Sobon Estate in California's Amador County comes a 2006 rose ($9.95) made from grenache, syrah and carignane grapes, also a trio of 2005s: an old-vines zinfandel ($12.95), its Fiddletown zinfandel ($19.95), and its "best to date" syrah ($15.95). ... The 2004 vintage of one of North America's finest dessert wines, Niagara Peninsula, Canada's Inniskillin sparkling ice wine ($90 per 375 ml bottle), is now available. Info: www.inniskillin.com. ... For something similar (no bubbles) from the same area and less expensive, the 2005 Jackson-Triggs Vidal ice wine can be had for $19.95 in a 187-milliliter bottle. Info: www.jacksontriggswinery.com. ... From Argentina comes the consistent, reasonably priced Terrazas estate wines: 2006 chardonnay ($10), first time with a screwcap; 2006 malbec ($12) and 2005 cabernet sauvignon ($12). Info: www.terrazasdelosandes.com.

SIPS AND NIBBLES: Wine writer Anthony Dias Blue and Patterson's Beverage Journal's editor and publisher Meridith May have purchased Patterson's and renamed it Patterson's The Tasting Panel Magazine. Headquartered in Sherman Oaks, the new beverage-industry trade magazine will be national in scope. Info: [phone]. ... Vinexpo 2007, the international wine trade show, takes place June 17-21 at the Parc des Expositions de Bordeaux-Lac. Info: www.vinexpo.com. ... Patron, the premium tequila, is supposedly getting ready to launch a $500 bottle. ... Scott Harvey, previously at Santino, Renwood and Folie a Deux, and now with his own line of Scott Harvey, Jana and InZinerator labels, has been appointed consulting winemaker to Napa's Astrale e Terra winery.