Steven Spurrier (5 October 1941 – 9 March 2021) was a British wine expert and merchant who was described as a champion of French wine. Spurrier organised the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which unexpectedly elevated the status of California wine and promoted the expansion of wine production in the New World. He was the founder of the Academie du Vin and Christie's Wine Course, in addition to authoring and co-authoring several wine books. Early life Spurrier was born in Cambridge on 5 October 1941 to John and Pamela Spurrier. His father joined his family sand-and-gravel business in Derbyshire after the Second World War. Spurrier was educated at Rugby School, before studying at the London School of Economics. His interest in wine was first piqued after drinking 1908 Cockburn's Port when he was 13 years old. Career Spurrier entered the wine trade in 1964 as a trainee with London's oldest wine merchant Christopher and Co. In 1970 he moved to Paris where he persuaded an elderly lady to sell him her small wine store, in the Cité Berryer, a passageway off the rue Royale, From 1971 he ran the wine shop, Les Caves de la Madeleine where clients were encouraged to taste wines before they bought them, which achieved recognition as a highly regarded specialist wine shop. With partners Jon Winroth and Patricia Gallgher in 1973 he 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, namesake of "Two Buck Chuck". Spurrier went on to stage the influential "Judgment of Paris" Tasting of 1976, when a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from California were ranked above some of the most prestigious wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Spurrier sold his wine interests in France and returned to the UK in 1988, becoming a wine consultant and journalist. He was director of The Christie’s Wine Course, which he founded with Christie's Education in 1982. He was also a wine consultant to Singapore Airlines, and consultant editor to Decanter. In 2018, he starred in the documentary SOMM 3 alongside Jancis Robinson where he discussed the Judgement of Paris while tasting some of the world's finest wines. In 2019, he founded the Academie du Vin Library with Simon McMurtrie to publish wine writing. The Library published the latest edition of his memoir in