The Académie du Vin Foundation, through its investment in Académie du Vin Library – the publishing house founded by the late Steven Spurrier in 2017 – has always aimed to support great wine writing and education.
Steven’s dream was to publish great wine stories from the past, present and future. To name his new company he was inspired by Académie du Vin, the wine school he set up in Paris, an arm of his legendary wine shop Les Caves de la Madeleine.
Steven, who died in 2021, was a maverick and a pioneer who left a momentous stamp on the world of fine wine. It might have happened nearly half a century ago, but the tasting that he put on in Paris one fine spring day in 1976 still resonates today as powerfully as ever.
The Judgement of Paris was the most famous (and in some quarters the most notorious) wine event of the 20th century. Since that eventful day, the story has been written a thousand times, and the tasting repeated in dozens of different forms.
Suffice it to say that the name of Spurrier is still spoken in California, and in Napa in particular, with huge respect. In the words of Bo Barrett, whose 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay was judged superior to a quartet of infinitely more renowned Burgundies, the tasting was a “catalytic moment” in Napa.
“That one historical event set up a chain of circumstances that levelled the playing field for any great wine, from any place in the world, to walk onto the big league,” he said in tribute when Steven died.
At Académie du Vin Foundation we are proud of our association with Steven Spurrier, connoisseur, wine taster extraordinaire, bon viveur, and pioneer.
