Career
Spurrier organized the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which promoted the expansion of wine production in the new world. Having been educated in Rugby School and the London School of Economics, Spurrier entered the wine trade in 1964 as a trainee with London’s oldest wine merchant Christopher and Company In 1970 he moved to Paris where he persuaded an elderly lady to sell him her small wine store located in a passageway off the rue Royale.
In 1973 he started L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school, which was central to the wine education of several wine personalities such as French wine writer Michel Bettane, and Charles F. Shaw, namesake of "Two Buck Chuck".
Spurrier went on to stage the influential "Judgement of Paris" Tasting of 1976, when a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from California were ranked above some of the most prestigious wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Spurrier sold his wine interests in France and returned to the United Kingdom in 1988, becoming a wine consultant and journalist.
He is now director of The Christie’s Wine Course, which he founded with Christie"s Education in 1982. He is also a wine consultant to Singapore Airlines, and consultant editor to Decanter.
