David Peppercorn (born 1931) is a British

Master of Wine Master of Wine (MW) is a qualification (not an academic degree) issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom. The MW qualification is generally regarded in the wine industry as one of the highest standards of professional knowle ...

French wine French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world, along with Italian, Spanish, and Amer ...

importer and author, known for his books about the

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

s of

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

and long experience in his field, having collected tasting notes since the late 1950s. He is married to fellow MW and wine writer

Serena Sutcliffe Serena Sutcliffe, Master of Wine, (born 1945), is the head of Sotheby's international wine department, as well as a prominent writer on wine. She is married to fellow Master of Wine David Peppercorn. Joining the wine trade in 1971, she passed the ...

. They were the first husband and wife team to both earn the qualification of Master of Wine. (Peter and

Philippa Carr Eleanor Alice Hibbert (Maiden and married names, née Burford; 1 September 1906 – 18 January 1993) was an English writer of Romance novel#Historical romance, historical romances. She was a prolific writer who published several books a year in ...

would later join them as the only two husband and wife MW teams.) He has three daughters (Caroline, Sarah and Fanny) by a previous marriage. Peppercorn's books include ''Bordeaux'', ''The Wines of Bordeaux'', ''The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to the Wines of Bordeaux'', ''Mouton-Rothschild 1945, The Wine To End All Wars'' and ''Great Vineyards and Winemakers''.

Writings and wine philosophy

Frank J. Prial, wine columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', called Peppercorn "one of England's foremost authorities on Bordeaux". He is a noted critic of the

Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 The Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 resulted from the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris, when Emperor Napoleon III requested a classification system for France's best Bordeaux wines that were to be on display for visitors from ...

and the vested interest in the classifications. In his writings on Bordeaux wine estates, Peppercorn regularly focuses on estates that were excluded from the 1855 classification, and maintains that omitted estate

Château La Mission Haut-Brion Château la Mission Haut-Brion is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, classed among the ''Crus Classés'' in the Graves classification of 1953. La Mission Haut-Brion is the sister property of the First Growth Château Haut ...

's consistent performance over the last century justifies its classification as a ''

Premier Cru Cru is a wine term used to indicate a high-quality vineyard or group of vineyards. It is a French word which is traditionally translated as "growth", as is the past participle of the verb "croître" (to grow); it literally means 'grown'. The t ...

''.

Pétrus imperial bottle controversy

In late 1990s, Peppercorn and his wife created controversy when they questioned the authenticity of imperial (6 liter)

bottles A bottle is a narrow-necked container made of an impermeable material (such as glass, plastic or aluminium) in various shapes and sizes that stores and transports liquids. Its mouth, at the bottling line, can be sealed with an internal stop ...

Château Pétrus Pétrus is a Bordeaux, France, wine estate located in the Pomerol appellation near its eastern border to Saint-Émilion. A small estate of just , it produces a red wine entirely from Merlot grapes (since the end of 2010), and produces no s ...

from the 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1934

vintage Vintage, in winemaking, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product—wine (see Harvest (wine)). A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certa ...

s that were served at collectors' wine tasting events in 1989 and 1990. The tastings were conducted from the collection of

Hardy Rodenstock Hardy Rodenstock (7 December 1941 in Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) – 19 May 2018 in Oberaudorf; legal name Meinhard Görke) was a publisher and manager of pop and Schlager music in Germany and a prominent wine collector, connoisseur, and trader, wit ...

, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

wine collector who later was embroiled in a counterfeit wine controversy involving a bottle reported belonging to

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

. While Peppercorn's and Sutcliffe's concerns were never proven, and were disputed by Rodenstock, the current manager of Château Pétrus, Christian Moueix, confirmed that the estate has no records of producing imperials during those vintages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peppercorn, David 1931 births Living people Wine critics British non-fiction writers Masters of Wine British male writers Male non-fiction writers

Writings and wine philosophy

Pétrus imperial bottle controversy

See also

References