An international wine merchant and connoisseur whose life was portrayed by actor Alan Rickman in a film about his life has died aged 79.
Steven Spurrier, who is credited with popularising Californian wines in the late 1970s, was considered a top expert in the wine industry and later founded the popular Christie’s Wine Course.
Born in Cambridge and educated at the London School of Economics, Spurrier entered the wine trade in 1964 as a trainee with London’s oldest wine merchant Christopher and Co.
He moved to Paris in 1970 where he persuaded an elderly lady to sell him her small wine store located in a passageway off the Rue Royale.
From 1971 Spurrier ran the wine shop Les Caves de la Madeleine, where clients were encouraged to taste wines before they bought them.
It achieved recognition as a highly regarded specialist wine shop and 1973 Spurrier 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.
Spurrier sold his interest in the Paris wine shop and returned to the Uk in 1988, where he became a journalist and wine consultant.
He later became director of the Christies wine course.
In 2008, Spurrier was portrayed by actor Alan Rickman in a film entitled ‘Bottle Shock’.
The wine expert is understood to have threatened legal action against misrepresentation of his life, claiming that the film’s script contained “hardly a word that is true” and “many, many pure inventions”.
Wine writer and founder of Wine Journal, Neal Martin, said of Spurrier: “One of the kindest gentlemen I have had the pleasure to know.
“He was a great supporter when I was a nobody. His indefatigable spirit to the very end is a lesson to us all. He’ll be missed enormously.”
Spurrier leaves wife Bella and two daughters, Christian and Kate.