The Académie du Vin Library, which Spurrier cofounded, announced the news.
It said in a short tribute, ‘He will always be remembered for founding the Académie du Vin, the celebrated Judgement of Paris and in recent years, the Académie du Vin Library and, together with his wife Bella, the Bride Valley Vineyard in Dorset, England – as well as much else besides.
‘He was also a hugely loved husband, father and grandfather. He will be sorely missed, not just by his immediate family and friends, but by people right across the world of wine.’
Spurrier’s contribution to the wine world has been vast, yet he will forever be associated with the famous Judgement of Paris tasting in 1976.
Timely highlights of wine writing make a literary buffet on which to feast
Brian St. Pierre reviews
(Académie du Vin Library; £25)
By now, in this plague year, most of us may be feeling more than a bit like the poor dupe in Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado,” walled into a wine-cellar’s alcove, maneuvered into claustrophobic isolation in an extreme of anti-social distancing, and frustrated at being unable to expansively share one of the best things ever created for expansive sharing. Denied wine’s bridge to gregariousness, “cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” as Macbeth once complained, we need an antidote, and rummaging around in this anthology of wine writing is a good one; it’s a set of keys to open the windows and let some sun shine in again.
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Timely highlights of wine writing make a literary buffet on which to feast
Brian St. Pierre reviews
(Académie du Vin Library; £25)
By now, in this plague year, most of us may be feeling more than a bit like the poor dupe in Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Cask of Amontillado,” walled into a wine-cellar’s alcove, maneuvered into claustrophobic isolation in an extreme of anti-social distancing, and frustrated at being unable to expansively share one of the best things ever created for expansive sharing. Denied wine’s bridge to gregariousness, “cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” as Macbeth once complained, we need an antidote, and rummaging around in this anthology of wine writing is a good one; it’s a set of keys to open the windows and let some sun shine in again.
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Crack open the best 2020 wine books for rich history, international politics and a vintner s lively memoir
Dave McIntyre, The Washington Post
Dec. 11, 2020
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1of3The cover of The Story of Wine: From Noah to Now by Hugh Johnson.Academie du Vin Library.Show MoreShow Less
2of3The cover of Wine and the White House: A History by Frederick J. Ryan Jr. White House Historical Association.Show MoreShow Less
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Each year at this time, I recommend my favorite wine books published in the previous 12 months. In this year of coronavirus and isolation, we have more time to read, stoke our thirst and even plan our next wine country visit once we can travel again. My choices for 2020 span history from biblical times to the present, as well as wine s role in modern politics, and a lively memoir from a winemaker who shares his blueprint for success.