Biography:
Steven Spurrier is a British wine expert and wine consultant. He is currently Consultant Editor for Decanter Magazine and Chairman of the Decanter World Wine Awards, now the world’s biggest wine competition, since its inception in 2004 and Chairman of Decanter Asia Wine Awards, Asia’s largest wine competition, since 2012.

Spurrier created the tasting between top Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California and France in May 1976, subsequently referred to as The Judgement of Paris. He is also the founder of the Académie du Vin and Christie's Wine Course, in addition to authoring eight books on wine of which two:  L’Academie du Vin Wine Course and L’Academie du Vin Guide to French Wines have been translated into several languages.

Some of the prizes and awards that Spurrier has won include “The Bunch Award” in 1996, “Le Prix de Champagne Lanson” in 1997, “Ritz Carlton Millienia Lifetime Achievement Award” in 1999 and “Le Prix Louis Marinier” in 2000. In 2001 he was awarded “Le Grand Prix de l’Academie Internationale du Vin” (only the third time this award has been given since 1982) and also “The Andre Tchelistcheff Maestro Award” from California. In 2017 he was made Decanter Man of the Year and also Honorary President of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. In 2018 his memoirs were published under the title “Wine a Way of Life.”

Presentation Title:
Wine:  Education, Appreciation, Communication by Steven Spurrier, founder of L’Academie du Vin

This presentation will cover three interrelated themes:  APPRECIATION, EDUCATION, COMMUNICATION.  Wine is made to be appreciated at all levels and the more one knows about it, the more one can appreciate it.  It is the same with Art, Literature and Music, where regular exposure to the commodity is necessary but information about the commodity is just as important.  Hugh Johnson describes a Fine Wine as “A wine worth talking about.”  Communication in today’s world is essential, for something that is not communicated, cannot be said to exist.  Being talked about is part of this continual communication and, as Oscar Wilde pronounced “The only think worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about!”

Appreciation can and should take a lifetime and proper appreciation comes through Education, which has to be the basis of all learning.  The basis of my life in wine from this point of view, and the reason for my ability to transmit this to others, has been Michael Broadbent’s seminal work Wine Tasting, of which I am very proud to have published the Commemorative Edition, fifty one years after the original date, under my recwntly formed Academie du Vin Library.   This book not only taught me HOW to taste wine, but WHY to taste, the simple difference between drinking and tasting is ‘paying attention.’  Wine needs one’s attention for it not, it cannot communicate its qualities.

Wine is a long two way street:  the producer producers it and the consumer consumes it and there are many intersections in between.  Appreciation via education, communication from appreciation allows us to arrive at our destination.