Michael Broadbent's Vintage Wine: 50 Years of Tasting the World's Finest Wines [Hardcover]

'The world's most experienced taster' - Wine Spectator Michael Broadbent has 'traded in and tasted a greater number of fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world' -The Oxford Companion to Wine 'Broadbent is the doyen of wine tasters and this covers thousands and thousands of bottles, some 100 years old' - THE GUARDIAN

The fine art of writing intelligent tasting notes has no greater master than the incomparable Michael Broadbent.

A more diligent archivist than we wine lovers deserve.

Broadbent can suggest, in a line or two, whether a wine is pleasurable, balanced and worth cellaring

In the world of the grape Mr Broadbent is a colossus

Michael is one of my favourite tasting partners.

The half-century of Michael Broadbent's wine trade experience has seen unprecedented change throughout the wine world. Published to coincide with his 75th birthday, and a celebration of 50 years in the wine trade, this book concentrates on the wines which are now in universal, high-level demand, those that are being collected, consumed and traded by vast and increasing numbers in all corners of the globe. More selective than his earlier works, this book features personal reflection as well as specific opinion. Years of cellars visited and pillaged for sale at Christie's, involving the checking and packing of dust and grime-laden bottles in distinctly dank and chilly conditions, plus the jet-set auctions around the world, the legendary tastings and the society events have yielded a store of vinous anecdote and amusement as well as an extensive wine-tasting record.

Tasting wine is highly subjective. In the end it is simply what you and I like that matters. If I have the temerity to inflict my own personal assessments and opinions on the reader, it is not to lay down the law but to share fifty years’ experience of tasting, discussing and, of course, drinking wine. Wine stimulates conversation; what better subject for good conversation than good wine. All are at liberty to argue and disagree. At least we can enjoy comparing notes.

Michael Broadbent entered the wine trade in 1952 and became a Master of Wine in 1960. He is one of the world's most respected winetasters, a director of Christie's and founder of their prestigious wine auction department.