Stuart Pigott is by his own admission a controversialist. Born and educated in Britain but living in Berlin since 1989, he has made it his business to be the chief inquisitor and critic of the German wine system. He was influenced by the “Gonzo” movement started by Hunter S Thompson in the 1960s (Pigott’s employer James Suckling [qv] is also a fan). In his many books in both English and German, starting with in Life Beyond Liebfraumilch (1988), he has been an outspoken critic of what he sees as the self-defeating complexity of German wine laws and of the poor output of many producers.

He has been attacked (both in print and physically) by winemakers, he has been sued and has been the subject of a criminal investigation ending in a settlement with his accuser ordered to pay 90 per cent of court costs. Of his first German-language book in 1994 he said, “I had told some painful truths, beginning with wine ratings and ending in the personal unpleasantness and craziness that I had experienced. A lot of winemakers got upset, and one aristocratic producer told Der Spiegel that I had run through the vineyards of Germany like a wild boar….It's a long story and this is [an] abbreviated version. It is also far from being the last time I got into deep trouble. The last time the shit really hit the fan was back in January 2018, but that's a completely different story...”

Pigott is considered one of the foremost experts on German wine. Despite (or because of?) his outspokenness he was recently awarded the Professor Muller-Thurgau prize for lifetime achievement by the famous Geisenheim Wine University in the Rheingau.

What would you consider was the most important decision of your career in wine?

 Moving to Germany at the beginning of 1989 was definitely the best decision I made. It took a long time for the process of integration to be completed, but 3 years ago I became a German citizen (I retained my British citizenship). The first thing I did was immerse myself in the Mosel wine industry and that forced me to improve my shaky German. It also introduced me to the nuts and bolts of grape growing and winemaking. Quite soon after that I met James Suckling for whom I now work as a senior editor.  

Do you consider your career progression to be conventional?

Absolutely not! For example, I never studied journalism and it wasn't until the autumn of 2008 that I started studying wine as a part-time student at the famous Geisenheim Wine University. It was really important to dock that scientific basis onto the knowledge I had accumulated as an autodidact (some of which proved to be wrong!) Then, when I moved to New York in the autumn of 2016 I finally started learning storytelling by reading Story by Robert McKee and Into the Woods by John Yorke. I still wonder how much I've learned...

Do you consider yourself a disruptor?

I think it's rather unimportant how I see myself in that connection. Ask other people and they'll tell you that I frequently stirred the shit and might well do so again at any moment. I first got into serious trouble when my first German language book was published in 1994. Suddenly it felt like I had a pack of dogs after me, though they were actually winemakers furious that I'd told some painful truths. There was a kafkaesque interrogation at a Berlin police station, and a court case with TV cameras, etc., etc. It showed me that the writer's job is to tell the truth and that he must be prepared to suffer for that. It was the real start of my development as a writer. 

Do you consider yourself to be agile?

Yes, very much so. During the 35 years since I graduated from the Royal College of Art (in cultural history) in July 1986 I haven't had a proper job, only worked freelance and there were a handful of economic, media and personal crises during that time. I came through all of this and will come through this crisis because of a combination of hard work and the agility of JamesSuckling.com. But winemaking is much the same. Just when everything's going swimmingly along comes the harvest from hell or the market flops.

What is the level of knowledge of your wine audience?

I will never forget the JamesSuckling.com Great Wines of the World event in Bejing in November 2018. 1,250 people paid to attend the event and the most remarkable thing about them was their knowledge. The guy from Domaine Drouhin in Oregon, expressed it better than anyone else when he said, "I don't make styles of wine that are fashionable in China, but the many people who came to my table knew who we are and what they were going to taste. Some of them even knew all about me!"

You are entirely online...?

The experience of drinking wine, being excited about it and wanting to know more hasn't changed fundamentally and the power of a good story does not diminish when it is told using electronic media. However, figuring out how a new medium functions is hard work and without knowing that it won't work for wine stories or any other kind of stories. The real sign of success is people who read what you wrote or listened to what you said and remember it because it touched them.

What is your attitude to influencers? 

Sometimes I see an influencer on Instagram and think, "it's just a boob shot!" or "how stupid is that?" but the nature of electronic media is democratic. People do things all kind of other ways than I do, and that they have all kind of other opinions than mine. That's good! One who is doing a very good job, is already pretty successful but deserves to be more successful is historyandwine on Intsagram (Jacqueline Coleman in Miami/Florida).  

How will the disruption of the past 12 months shape the wine world?

In spite of all the problems - the collapse in sales of Alsace Gewurztraminer is a prominent example - for large parts of the wine industry the crisis has been positive. More people discovered that sharing a bottle of wine together in the evening is very helpful for communication in the widest sense of that word. The bicycle, hiking and gardening have also grown in popularity, to give other examples. I am convinced these are lasting changes and part of a major socio-culturtal reorientation. The crisis isn't over yet by a mile and these effects will deepen as it continues. 

What is best if you’re starting out, generalist or specialist?

I have to say that I'd actively discourage a young person from trying to make a living writing about wine. Also, wine is not a good subject for a writer, because there's not much love and death, the things that make stories compelling for normal people. Most wine stories fall flat as a result and even the good ones have limited appeal. I am currently writing a movie script and for these reasons it has nothing to do with wine.