Wine - A Way of Life

This is the story of Steven Spurrier's rich and eventful life in and around wine.

From being inspired by a glass of Cockburn 1908 Vintage Port at thirteen years old, Steven Spurrier joined London's oldest wine merchant in 1964; he bought a wine shop in Paris ("Your wine merchant speaks English"), and organised what became known as the Judgement of Paris, when, at a blind tasting, nine of the best tasters in France placed Californian wines, both white and red, above the greatest French wines, changing the wine world forever.

Steven Spurrier was 2017 Decanter Man of the Year, a title generally reserved for the greatest of the world's wine makers, and is currently President of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. He has recently planted a vineyard in Dorset to produce sparkling wine.

Review: The Unsung Hero of the British Wine Trade -- Jancis Robinson * Financial Times *

Spurrier was born with a silver spoon, and has never stopped stirring - happily for the wine trade and the general gaiety of nations.

He has forgotten nothing, either: here is the wine trade as you never saw it before, in detail from the dire to the sublime.

Not to be put down: not Spurrier, nor his book.

-- Hugh Johnson

Were Steven a grape, he would be a noble variety: one that stands apart or can blend brilliantly. His fearless mind has inspired far more change than he will ever be given credit for. -- Mark Williamson * Maceo and Willi's Wine Bar, Paris *