Steven Spurrier
Bride Valley vineyard carries the esteemed legacy of Steven Spurrier, a true luminary in the wine industry who dedicated a lifetime to wine. Perhaps most famous for the Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976, a blind tasting, which saw Californian wines triumph over top French labels, shocked the wine establishment and forever changed the global perception of Californian wine. Steven also founded the Academie du Vin and Christie's Wine Course, in addition to authoring and co-authoring several wine books. At Bride Valley Wines, we are proud to carry forward the vineyard he planted and the vision he brought to life.
STEVEN SPURRIER
1941 – 2021
Steven Spurrier was one of the world’s leading authorities on wine. A celebrated critic, retailer, teacher and consultant – as well as the visionary behind the legendary Judgement of Paris.
Steven joined the wine trade in 1964 as a trainee with London's oldest wine merchant Christopher and Co. During his time there he spent many months travelling to Europe - to Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, Germany and Oporto – to meet with wine houses and producers.
Steven vividly describes the wine industry in those days in his autobiography ‘A Life in Wine'.
“If bottles were displayed at all, they were ancient and dusty and carried no price tag. In such establishments clients were received by an elegantly dressed young man at a polished mahogany desk; shown a comfortable chair, and invited to discuss their needs.
In those days wine was a male-only preoccupation: gentlemen had their own wine merchant just as they had their own tailor, shirt-maker and barber, and money seldom changed hands. Everything was purchased on account.”
-Steven Spurrier, A Life in Wine
He later moved to France, first to Provence and then Paris in 1971 where he opened a shop of his own. Les Caves de la Madeleine achieved recognition as a highly regarded specialist wine shop and Steven went on to start L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school in 1973. On May 24 1976 L’Academie held the tasting that became known as the now legendary “Judgement of Paris” – a blind tasting that ranked a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from California above some of the most prestigious wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux.
Returning to London, Steven founded the Christie’s Wine Course which he ran from 1982-2012 and in 1996 became Colsultant Editor for Decanter Magazine. In 2017 he was made Decanter “Man of the Year” and was also appointed Hon President of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Having written several well-received books on wine, in 2019 he was a founding partner in the Academie du Vin Library, whose first of many publications was the Commemorative Edition of Michael Broadbent’s “Wine Tasting”.
Steven and his wife Bella made Litton Cheney their home in 1987. From early on Steven was keenly aware of the potential for growing vines on his wife’s 200-acre farm on the edge of the village. Having spent a lifetime in the trade – and inspired by the chalky, south-facing slopes of his wife Bella’s Dorset sheep farm - the opportunity to produce his own wine grew too much for Steven to resist. Forty-four thousand vines were planted over 25 prime acres on Bella’s farm to create Bride Valley Vineyard. Steven took great delight in pouring wines crafted from the fruit of the land close to his and Bella’s home and saw them receiving wine acclaim.
Throughout his career he remained “totally and utterly in love with wine, the places where it is produced and the people who produce it; it has given me more pleasure, excitement and satisfaction than I could ever have imagined.” He genuinely found wine people just as interesting as the drink they produced.
"Steven’s bubbly started to become a picture of his palate: precise, intense, sophisticated, acute. What could be more satisfying in a critic’s life than to write the masterpiece he has been pursuing for so long?"
