The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, permanent home of such artifacts as the Spirit of St. Louis plane that Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, last week added to its collection a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine. And, as old storytellers used to say, thereby hangs a tale. The two wines, 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, shared the honor of winning a now famous wine tasting by a group of the top Parisian experts in 1976. At the time the wine tasting was considered just a minor part of the American Bicentennial celebration in the French capital, but over the years it has become recognized as a turning point in American wine history. On that day the vintners' world turned upside down, as California wines beat French varieties in Paris.

Joining in last week's ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the Paris tasting was TIME contributor George M. Taber. Two decades ago, he was a correspondent in Paris and one of only a few reporters who covered the event. Warren Winiarski, the owner-winemaker of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, invited Taber because of TIME's role in publicizing the victory. Said Winiarski: "It was the story in TIME about the Paris tasting that first gave California wines an international recognition."

Taber, Winiarski and Jim Barrett, the owner of Chateau Montelena, joined an anniversary lunch in Napa, California. Later Winiarski was part of a symposium at the Smithsonian that traced America's love affair with wine back to the days when Thomas Jefferson served as American envoy to Paris.

The Paris tasting was to become a subject of great controversy. Some French judges tried to change their scores or get their ballots back. Taber, though, has the best record of the event. He dug out his original eight-page report that served as the basis for the TIME story. Says Taber: "It was all right there in the file. The judges knew exactly what they were doing...At least for that day the judgment of Paris was California." The debate about the Paris tasting, though, will undoubtedly go on for another 20 years and many more bottles of wine.