This epic interview with Steven Spurrier, described by Monty as “the wine trade’s quintessential Englishman,” was recorded just 3 years before his passing in 2021 at the age of 80. Monty took the opportunity to dive right in and unravel the backstory of Stephen’s legendary career in the wine industry. Steven told the story of being bored at his English boarding school and uninspired by the idea of continuing his education at Cambridge. He chose the London School of Economics, despite being “bad at maths,” when his father insisted he attend university in one way, shape or form. So he went to London to “grow up and have a great time.” Getting into wine began by joining the LSE Wine Club and reading “rather fanciful English wine books with titles like The Wayward Tendrils of the Vine.” Upon graduation, Steven knew he wanted to enter the wine trade, luckily he had the money to do so, and “I was in a position to choose my profession rather than have to have it chosen for me.”
Steven Spurrier
Photo Credit Academie du Vin Library
Beginning his career in 1964, Steven spent his first 3 years at Christopher’s, on German Street in London, near St. James Palace. The lure of France drove him to buy a property in Provence with a big ruin on it and, when he married his wife in 1968, they moved directly to Provence. Steven ironically remarks that rebuilding the ruin “didn’t really work out the way we’d hoped, so I said to my wife, well, we’ll go back to Paris and I’ll go back into the wine trade.” He discovered that Paris did not have a London-style structured wine trade, so he segued into buying a shop and “that’s how it all began, as simple as that,” he laughs. On the day he took control of the shop in 1971, he placed a cheeky ad in the Herald Tribune, stating “Your wine merchant speaks English.” He credits his initial success to the location of the shop, near all the embassies, IBM, the American banks and the fact that he was the only English speaking wine merchant in Paris.
Steven’s next milestone was founding the Academie du Vin, the first private wine school in France. His partner, John Winroth, was the wine correspondent for the Herald Tribune and together they created a big tasting room and the only English speaking wine school in the country. Steven’s colleague at Academie du Vin, American Patricia Gallagher, toured California in 1975 and came back “raving about the quality.” They decided they would hold a tasting, but Steven knew “this was different. We needed a peg to hang it on. Patricia said, ‘I’ve got a peg! 1976 is the bicentennial of the American Declaration of Independence,’ and I went along with that.”
No conversation with Spurrier is complete with some discussion of the famous ‘Judgement of Paris’ which they created, and Steven recalls recruiting the 9 best palates in France to judge the tasting, and then heading off to California to make the final wine selection. The rest is wine history, as immortalized in the film ‘Bottle Shock,’ which Steven recounts with great good humor, including the decision to make the tasting blind only days before the event, and the astonishment when California wines won both the red and the white categories.
Monty takes Steven through subsequent chapters of his career, including his move back to London in 1988, having sold all his businesses in France. He became a highly regarded wine writer, ultimately leaving a job running Harrod’s wine department to write for Decanter under Sarah Kemp. Along with several consulting gigs, among other pieces of wine work, Steven also spent a lot of time in Italy, befriending producers in Tuscany and Piedmont, and travelling to Italy every summer. Declaring he “could never go back to live in France, I could live in Italy! I don’t speak a word of Italian but the food’s very good and there’s so much going on.” In his opinion, the big name producers in Italy are far more approachable than those in France and he appreciates their dedication to remaining “vignerons, even though they’ve been doing it for 700 years.”
Looking back at the effects of the Judgement of Paris, Steven agrees with Monty that the warmer, riper Californian style wines helped create the boom in Super Tuscans, although he adds that Robert Parker certainly influenced the late 20th century market desire for robust, high alcohol wines. He also adds that “the Super Tuscan trend, the Frenchification of Italian wine is now calming down. I think it’s a very good thing.” They go on to discuss the importance of native grape varieties and the “sense of place that is so evident in Italian wine.” Steven says he found Italian wines remarkable in recent years, as well as Italian wine communication. He advises that success in the future will be based on the ability to exalt the region because it’s easier for people to recognize than all the Italian native grapes. He is also a firm believer in the tradition of Italians drinking wine with food and he feels those types of pairings should be spotlighted for new consumers. Ultimately, he comments, “French wines are a little bit stuffy. And, Italian wine, it’s a little bit more relaxed, a bit more family oriented, it’s a strong card to play, the families, their style, it’s all part of the Italian package.”
The closing words of the interview look towards Bride Valley, Spurrier’s own vineyard in Dorset, producing sparkling English wines, and whether or not English wines will ever rival those of Franciacorta. Ironically, 8 years after this interview was recorded, we know unequivocally that English wines have sometimes surpassed some of the great sparklers, both French and Italian, funnily enough, in blind tastings. Steven would be amused.
Listen to the full episode HERE
