David Peppercorn

Last updated

David Peppercorn
Born1931 (age 92–93)
OccupationWine writer
NationalityBritish
SubjectWine

David Peppercorn (born 1931) is a British Master of Wine, [1] French wine importer and author, known for his books about the wines of Bordeaux and long experience in his field, having collected tasting notes since the late 1950s. [2] He is married to fellow MW and wine writer Serena Sutcliffe. They were the first husband and wife team to both earn the qualification of Master of Wine. (Peter and Philippa Carr would later join them as the only two husband and wife MW teams.) [3] He has three daughters (Caroline, Sarah and Fanny) by a previous marriage. Peppercorn's books include Bordeaux, The Wines of Bordeaux, The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to the Wines of Bordeaux, [4] Mouton-Rothschild 1945, The Wine To End All Wars [5] and Great Vineyards and Winemakers. [6]

Contents

Writings and wine philosophy

Frank J. Prial, wine columnist for The New York Times , called Peppercorn "one of England's foremost authorities on Bordeaux". [7] He is a noted critic of the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 and the vested interest in the classifications. In his writings on Bordeaux wine estates, Peppercorn regularly focuses on estates that were excluded from the 1855 classification, [8] and maintains that omitted estate Château La Mission Haut-Brion's consistent performance over the last century justifies its classification as a Premier Cru . [9]

Pétrus imperial bottle controversy

In late 1990s, Peppercorn and his wife created controversy when they questioned the authenticity of imperial (6 liter) bottles of Château Pétrus from the 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1934 vintages that were served at collectors' wine tasting events in 1989 and 1990. The tastings were conducted from the collection of Hardy Rodenstock, a German wine collector who later was embroiled in a counterfeit wine controversy involving a bottle reported belonging to Thomas Jefferson. While Peppercorn's and Sutcliffe's concerns were never proven, and were disputed by Rodenstock, the current manager of Château Pétrus, Christian Moueix, confirmed that the estate has no records of producing imperials during those vintages. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Pétrus</span> Vineyard in Bordeaux, France

Pétrus is a Bordeaux, France, wine estate located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. A small estate of just 11.4 hectares, it produces a red wine entirely from Merlot grapes, and produces no second wine. The estate belongs to Jean-François Moueix and his children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Mouton Rothschild</span> French wine estate

Château Mouton Rothschild is a wine estate located in the village of Pauillac in the Médoc region, 50 km (30 mi) north-west of the city of Bordeaux, France. Originally known as Château Brane-Mouton, its red wine was renamed by Nathaniel de Rothschild in 1853 to Château Mouton Rothschild. In the 1920s it began the practice of bottling the harvest at the estate itself, rather than shipping the wine to merchants for bottling elsewhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855</span> Ranking system for Bordeaux wine set in 1855

The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from around the world. Brokers from the wine industry ranked the wines according to a château's reputation and trading price, which at that time was directly related to quality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe de Rothschild</span> Wine grower and auto racer (1902–1988)

Philippe, Baron de Rothschild was a member of the Rothschild banking family who became a Grand Prix motor racing driver, a screenwriter and playwright, a theatrical producer, a film producer, a poet, and one of the most successful wine growers in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Lafite Rothschild</span> Vineyard and chateau of Bordeaux

Château Lafite Rothschild is a French wine estate of Bordeaux wine, located in Pauillac in France, owned by members of the Rothschild family since the 19th century, and rated as a First Growth under the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Margaux</span> French vineyard and winery

Château Margaux, archaically La Mothe de Margaux, is a wine estate of Bordeaux wine, and was one of five wines to achieve Premier cru status in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855. The estate's best wines are very expensive, with a bottle of Château Margaux grand vin reaching over $1,000. The estate is located in the commune of Margaux on the left bank of the Garonne estuary in the Médoc region, in the département of Gironde, and the wine is delimited to the AOC of Margaux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Pédesclaux</span>

Château Pédesclaux is a winery in the Pauillac appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of eighteen Cinquièmes Crus in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château Langoa-Barton</span>

Château Langoa-Barton is a winery in the Saint-Julien appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. Château Langoa-Barton is also the name of the red wine produced by this property. The wine produced here was classified as one of fourteen Troisièmes Crus in the historic Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.

Château Pontet-Canet is a winery in the Pauillac appellation of the Bordeaux wine region of France. Chateau Pontet-Canet is also the name of the red wine produced by this property. The wine produced here was classified as one of eighteen Cinquièmes Crus in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French oenophiles participated in two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines. A Napa County wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. By the early 1970s, the quality of some California wines was outstanding but few took notice as the market favored French brands. Spurrier sold predominately French wine and believed the California wines would not win.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stag's Leap Wine Cellars</span> Winery in Napa Valley, California

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars is a winery founded by Warren Winiarski in 1970 and based in the Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, California.

Alexis Lichine was a Russian wine writer and entrepreneur. He played a key role in promoting varietal labelling of wine, was a masterful salesman of wine, had interests in two Bordeaux wineries, owning Château Prieuré-Lichine in Margaux and a share of Château Lascombes in the Médoc. He was married to actress Arlene Dahl from 1964 to 1969.

Château Lascombes is a winery in the Margaux appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of fifteen Seconds Crus in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. In the 1950s, the estate was purchased by French wine writer Alexis Lichine who continued to own part of the estate till 1971 when Bass Charrington took over principal ownership. In 2001 it was purchased by Yves Vatelot and US-based Colony Capital, who in 2011 sold it to the French insurance group MACSF. In addition to its premier cuvee, a second wine is also produced, under the name Chevalier de Lascombes. Additional brands are Château Segonnes, Rosé de Lascombes, Vin Sec Chevalier de Lascombes and Gombaud.

Château d'Armailhac, previously named Château Mouton-d'Armailhacq, Château Mouton-Baron Philippe, Mouton Baronne and Château Mouton-Baronne-Philippe (1979–1988), is a winery in the Pauillac appellation of the Bordeaux region of France. The wine produced here was classified as one of eighteen Cinquièmes Crus in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. In 1989, Baroness Philippine decided to restore its original identity to Mouton d’Armailhacq, giving it the name Château d’Armailhac.

Mouton Cadet is the brand name of a popular range of modestly priced, generic Bordeaux wines, considered Bordeaux's most successful brand. Created by Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Mouton Cadet wine is produced through the assembly of a variety of grapes, from several Bordeaux region appellations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château La Mission Haut-Brion</span>

Château la Mission Haut-Brion is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, classed among the Crus Classés in the Graves classification of 1953. La Mission Haut-Brion is the sister property of the First Growth Château Haut-Brion. The winery, located in close vicinity of the city of Bordeaux, belongs to the wine region Graves, in the commune of Talence with additional property in Pessac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardy Rodenstock</span> German wine collector (1941–2018)

Meinhard Görke, known as Hardy Rodenstock was a German publisher and manager of pop and Schlager music, and a prominent wine collector, connoisseur, and trader, with a special interest in old and rare wines. He became famous for his allegedly uncanny ability to track down old and very rare wines, and for arranging extravagant wine tastings featuring these wines. It has been alleged that Rodenstock was the perpetrator of an elaborate wine fraud. In 1992, a German court found that Rodenstock had "knowingly offered adulterated wine" for sale. On appeal, the case was settled out of court.

In considering the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855, Alexis Lichine held the opinion that the list, some hundred years after the selection was made, no longer expressed the whole truth concerning the ranking of Bordeaux wine. Working for a reevaluation and change of structure of the classification of Bordeaux estates, he ended up spending much of his professional life on a campaign that lasted more than thirty years to accomplish a revision. Having published his Classification des Grands Crus Rouges de Bordeaux in 1962, with several revisions over the following years, Lichine came to be viewed as "the doyen of unofficial classification compilers".

Henri Enjalbert was a French professor of geography at the University of Bordeaux. He was considered an eminent specialist in wine geology, whose expert opinion frequently overlapped into the fields of oenology, and wine and terroir history, within the Bordeaux region and beyond. Among other credits, he has been called "Bordeaux's most diligent geologist" and "the discoverer of Mas de Daumas Gassac. Among his contentions are that Albania, the Ionian Islands of Greece, and southern Dalmatia in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina may have been the last European refuge of the grape vine after the Ice Age.

References

  1. ↑ mastersofwine.org, Masters of Wine, David Peppercorn profile Archived 2010-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Decanter.com, Learning Route: What is Tasting Archived 17 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Loos, Ted, Connoisseur's World / Town & Country (October 1, 2002) Divine wisdom: Sotheby's spirited Serena Sutcliffe
  4. ↑ Goldberg, Howard, The New York Times (May 13, 1987) Wine Talk
  5. ↑ Peppercorn, David, The Spectator (August 16, 2006) Mouton-Rothschild 1945, The Wine To End All Wars
  6. ↑ Wainwright, Martin, The Guardian (July 14, 2006) Arts - People
  7. ↑ Prial, Frank J. The New York Times (28 November 1990). "Wine Talk". The New York Times .
  8. ↑ Prial, Frank J. The New York Times (20 August 1989). "Wine; THE BATTLE OF 1855]". The New York Times .
  9. ↑ Peppercorn, David (2003). Bordeaux. London: Mitchell Beazley. p. 50. ISBN   1-84000-927-6.
  10. ↑ Suckling, James, Wine Spectator (31 May 1998). "A Taste of Deception". Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.