R.I.P. Michael Broadbent

Surprised to see no comments on this, which kind of gnawed at me. Perhaps it's leftover from the Rodenstock fiasco, or maybe because he wasn't much involved in the esoteric, diverse, rustic or frontier wines often discussed here. (Although it's worth remembering he was an early fan of small CA wineries, which were considered esoteric and from the frontier at the time.)

I never met him and don't know what he was like personally, but his writings helped convert me from merely interested in wine to being enchanted by it.
 
I don't know Broadbent's work very well. My earliest reads were Parker and Tanzer -- the American critics, generally -- only as I've matured into the hobby have I come to be interested in how the wines are made, how the grape genes work, who are the people that make the wines. Now I read recent books/surveys/travelogues but most of MB's works date from before I really got hooked.
 
MB at the pulpit about to throw down the hammer on a lot of 1990 Montrose, at the inaugural NY Christies auction in June 1995: "I have a colleague who really likes this wine"
 
i have his "the great vintage wine book" both volumes one and two. volume one goes through 1978 vintage and volume two through 1990. i also have his last book, "vintage wine", that goes through the 2000 vintage.

curiously, the first two books i found in paperback at the wine department at harrod's. i've never seen another copy of either of these books in paperback.

i really like his style of wine note and can find myself leafing through, reading the notes and his summaries of vintages. he doesn't get lost in over-descriptiveness, but gives a pithy and solid impression of the wine.

a couple examples of how short the notes can be:

1966 leoville porferre st. julien - elegant, complete. ***(*) tasted 1969 & 1977, drink 1982-1996;

1966 magdelaine st. emilion - deep, rich, complex. ***(*) tasted 1974 & december 1978, drink 1982 to 1996.

broadbent used the 5 star rating system, so these were both very good wines in his estimation. most of his notes are quite a bit longer, but he was comfortable with just a few words when they said what he had to say.

for me, he and john livingston are the best at what they do.
 
I always pull out Vintage Wine when confronted with an older wine for potential purchase that I don’t know, particularly Bordeaux. And I always go back to the book when tasting an older wine, particularly Bordeaux, to see if we agree or not. He was not always right. :)

I also liked his Decanter pieces, read on occasion.

In writing he had his own style that was confident yet restrained.

He will be missed.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
I always pull out Vintage Wine when confronted with an older wine for potential purchase that I don’t know, particularly Bordeaux. And I always go back to the book when tasting an older wine, particularly Bordeaux, to see if we agree or not. He was not always right. :)

I also liked his Decanter pieces, read on occasion.

In writing he had his own style that was confident yet restrained.

He will be missed.
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yes, with older wine, provenance is so much a determining factor that relying on tasting notes bound to be somewhat hit and miss.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
I always pull out Vintage Wine when confronted with an older wine for potential purchase that I don’t know, particularly Bordeaux. And I always go back to the book when tasting an older wine, particularly Bordeaux, to see if we agree or not. He was not always right. :)

I also liked his Decanter pieces, read on occasion.

In writing he had his own style that was confident yet restrained.

He will be missed.
Click to expand...

yes, with older wine, provenance is so much a determining factor that relying on tasting notes bound to be somewhat hit and miss.
Click to expand...

Right. Provenance and also circumstance (quick impressions in a 20+ wine tasting versus say a slow dinner with patience to let a wine open). I find one of the interesting parts of reading his notes or ratings on older Bordeaux is when I can infer he had a sketchy bottle of a wine (or it was not allowed to open) because I know the wine to be very fine and alive while his book memorializes it as seemingly over-the-hill.
 
You might clarify that you are speaking of Jancis' obituary of Broadbent, not someone's obit of her. I definitely had a start there!
 
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