The year was 1976. Steven Spurrier was a young English wine merchant in Paris and decided upon a crazy thought. He travelled to the United States and connected with what had been thought of some of the best winemakers that side of the pond. He brought their prized wines back and organised a blind tasting comprising an eminent (largely French) jury exactly where he pitted these finds against the best French Bordeaux-each reds and whites. The benefits of the tasting changed the wine business forever. Americans won and, for the very first time, the globe sat up and took notice of wines that had been not just French. To this day, I am positive several a French critic can be heard mumbling below his/her breath about the physical exercise and its effect.
And that is how influential Spurrier was and remained various decades later. He wasn’t an MW, or MS. He didn’t need to have titles. And someplace that permitted him to keep his youngster-like curiosity about wines correct till the finish. He wasn’t one of these wine critics who taste a wine only to criticise it and complain about how the berries had been picked a day also early or that the oak was a touch also toasty. Instead, he valorised them. He identified a way to connect the wine to a mood or sentiment, to the essence of an occasion, thereby obtaining its correct spot in the globe. To him, not all wines had been great, but if a wine was totally free from technical flaws, he would usually make the time to see that it merited its rightful spot on the shelf.
Spurrier had a peculiar interest in the wines of India. The very first time he described Grover’s La Reserve as a wine to watch out for, he place India on the wine map and brought considerable recognition for our nascent business. He remained a continuous force for our scene, going to regions, tasting vintages, usually encouraging and positive, obtaining strategies to help the business and move it forward.
That identical gentle nature carried forth when he interacted with wine lovers. I bear in mind my very first year as a judge at Decanter World Wine Awards, which Spurrier chaired for the longest time. My apprehensions about becoming anticipated to taste and judge alongside the very best palates in the enterprise currently had my stomach in knots. And then along came this gentleman on his bicycle. He parked it and dusted a couple of creases off his jacket as he walked into the venue. He was promptly accosted by the organisers who wanted his interest for a million points. He attended to all with a sense of calm that was infectious even from a distance. A couple of minutes later, at the coffee counter, he spoke to me, welcoming me, asking me about the climate back house and, in several strategies, disarming me in the gentlest way feasible. Never when did I really feel the intimidation that ought to generally come with the premise of speaking wine with the most essential wine character alive! And from that point on, every single meeting went like that. He complimented me on my power when I helped with operating a wine auction for his Wine Society in Mumbai, and when he even taught me how to fold my suits when travelling, so that they do not crease also heavily. Wine usually anointed these meetings, but by no means when did he let his gravitas on the topic and in the field more than-ride the buoyant pleasures of the moment.
The late Kapil Sekhri of Fratelli Wines even managed to engage Spurrier’s curiosity and interest to the point that the man himself came down and worked with Fratelli’s chief winemaker Piero Masi to create a unique label for the Indian marketplace. Trying the M/S variety of wines is like getting a conversation with Spurrier. It disarms you. Whether you are a wine imbiber or not, it speaks to you. They had been produced with that pretty intent of generating good quality wines in India at an accessible cost and in packaging that wouldn’t confuse the customer. Between Sekhri, Masi and Spurrier, they accomplished this in every single sense and the Indian wine shelf stands positively reinforced thanks to their efforts and practical experience.
Spurrier passed on this week and the loss to the business is insurmountable. Given that we lost Sekhri a couple of months ago (some thing I nonetheless grapple with to think), I intend to open a bottle to honour them each. Maybe the Fratelli M/S rosé, as it would be the most fitting tribute to Sekhri, and also to Spurrier, a legend of a man who wouldn’t rest on his laurels and by no means stopped becoming curious. RIP.
The writer is a sommelier