‘The Times’ critic Jane MacQuitty awarded MBE

The wine critic of The Times, Jane MacQuitty, has been awarded an MBE in the latest Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

The longstanding critic and wine writer is receiving the honour for “services to win journalism” and said it was “totally unexpected but a big honour to join the likes of Oz Clarke OBE and Jancis Robinson OBE in receiving a gong.”

MacQuitty started her wine writing career as the food and wine correspondent for House & Garden magazine, followed by two years at the Consumer’s Association where she edited the Which? Wine Guide and wrote Which? Wine Monthly, before joining The Times where she has been the wine and drink critic since the 1980s.

She has written books on Champagne and sparkling wine as well as Australia and New Zealand and has won numerous awards including: Glenfiddich Wine Writer of the Year, Glenfiddich Whisky Writer of the Year and Portuguese Wine Journalist of the Year.

Celebrating the award with a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck ‘Essentiel’, she added: “It’s great for wine, it’s especially great for women in wine as there is so little recognition of our considerable input and presence in the world of wine.   

“In recent years, there have been few honours in this arena, shameful really, given that the wine and spirit industries’ contribution to the public purse is a whopping £17 billion.”

She continued that her children were “thrilled” she was to receive the same award as rapper Dizzee Rascal (as well as footballer Marcus Rashford and fitness guru Joe Wicks) though, “my husband tells me that I have a long, long, way to go to match David Attenborough’s double knighthood.”