Late wine legend Steven Spurrier awarded The Oeno Golden Vines Honorary Award 2021

The wine industry was in mourning earlier this year when it lost one of its most colourful characters. Now, an award given after his death ensures Steven Spurrier’s contributions to the wine world live on.

Few men or women can rival Steven Spurrier’s illustrious career in wine. Having famously organised the pivotal ‘Judgment of Paris’ tasting in 1976, his life was a whirligig of wine-centric highs and lows.

These included opening Paris wine shop Les Caves de la Madeleine, being hired to bolster the Harrods wine department and then fired for not being suitably deferential to the store’s owner Mohammed al-Fayed, and acting as wine consultant to Singapore Airlines. He became the director of The Christie’s Wine Course, and his Bride Valley vineyard, located near Spurrier’s home in Dorset, is now a well-established English sparkling estate.

The endlessly busy wine expert passed away from cancer in March 2021. He was described by Jancis Robinson as being the definition of ‘debonair’, and by wine writer Hugh Johnson as “a pillar of opinion who everyone respects”.

This week, Bella Spurrier, Steven’s wife, collected The Oeno Golden Vines Honorary Award on her husband’s behalf, in honour of his extraordinary legacy.

Jane MacQuitty, Spurrier’s friend and wine critic for The Times presented the trophy at The Macallan Golden Vines Dinner on Tuesday, organised by Liquid Icons, following a moving three-minute video dedication created by Angela Duerr of Napa-based Cultured Vine.

“Quite simply, Steven was one of the greatest wine men of his generation, just as his mentor and friend, Michael Broadbent, was before him,” said MacQuitty.

Bella Spurrier commented: “I am delighted to accept The Oeno Golden Vines Honorary Award on behalf of my late husband, whose contribution to the world of fine wine has touched so many who share his thirst for learning and love for this most treasured of god’s creations. Steven would have been very proud to receive this award and of the work that the Gerard Basset Foundation is doing to promote diversity and inclusion in the wine world which is currently sorely lacking.”

Michael Doerr, CEO of Oeno added: “Steven Spurrier’s impact on the fine wine world is immeasurable. As a leading fine wine merchant, we walk in Steven’s shoes.”

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, for which Spurrier is perhaps best known, changed the path of wine when it unexpectedly elevated the status of California wine above that of centuries-old French winemaking houses.