Jancis Mary Robinson OBE,

ComMA The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...

, MW (born 22 April 1950) is a British

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 ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

, journalist and wine writer. She currently writes a weekly column for the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'', and writes for her website JancisRobinson.com, updated daily. She provided advice for the wine cellar of Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Early life and education

Robinson was born in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, studied

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

at St Anne's College,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and worked for a travel company after leaving university; according to her website, she worked in marketing for

Thomson Holidays Thomson Travel Group plc was a business formed by the Thomson Corporation of Canada, when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. It was acquired by Preussag AG, an industrial and transport conglomerate, in 2000. The group continu ...

Career

Robinson started her wine writing career on 1 December 1975 when she became assistant editor for the trade magazine '' Wine & Spirit''. In 1984, she became the first person outside the wine trade to become a

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 ...

. From 1995 until she resigned in 2010 she served as

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

' wine consultant, and supervised the BA

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cellar luxury selection. As a wine writer, she has become one of the world's leading writers of educational and encyclopedic material on wine and was described by ''

Decanter A decanter is a vessel that is used to hold the decantation of a liquid (such as wine) which may contain sediment. Decanters, which have a varied shape and design, have been traditionally made from glass or crystal. Their volume is usually equ ...

'' as "the most respected wine critic and journalist in the world". ''

The Oxford Companion to Wine ''The Oxford Companion to Wine'' (''OCW'') is a book in the series of Oxford Companions published by Oxford University Press. The book provides an alphabetically arranged reference to wine, compiled and edited by Jancis Robinson, with contribution ...

'', edited by Robinson, is widely considered to be the most comprehensive wine encyclopedia in the world. The first edition was published in 1994, and took five years to write after she was signed on as editor in 1988. In addition, ''

The World Atlas of Wine ''The World Atlas of Wine'' by Hugh Johnson and (since 2003) Jancis Robinson, MW, is an atlas and reference work on the world of wine, published by Mitchell Beazley. It pioneered the use of wine-specific cartography to give wine a sense of place ...

'' by Hugh Johnson and Robinson is one of the world's leading wine atlases. In 1995, Robinson appeared in a 10-episode wine course on

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

television. This series was later reissued on

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. A book titled ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' was written to accompany the series and has gone through several editions. In 2015 she launched an online wine course, "Mastering Wine – Shortcuts to Success" on

udemy Udemy, Inc. is a global destination for teaching and learning online. It was founded in May 2010 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. As of November 2022, the platform has more than 57 million students, 213,000 courses, and 74,000 ins ...

. She has an honorary doctorate from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, and was made an OBE in 2003, among numerous other awards for her writing. Her accolades include multiple

Glenfiddich Glenfiddich () is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky produced by William Grant & Sons in the Scottish burgh of Dufftown in Moray. The name Glenfiddich derives from the Scottish Gaelic ''Gleann Fhiodhaich'' meaning "valley of the deer", which is ...

Awards and André Simon Memorial Awards, and a selection as the ''Decanter'' "1999 Woman of the Year". In 2016, she was made an Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole, was given the German VDP association's highest honour and won for fourth James Beard Award in the US. Following a difference of opinion with Robert Parker over the 2003 vintage of

Château Pavie Château Pavie is a winery in Saint-Émilion in the Bordeaux region of France. It lies on the plateau to the southeast of St. Emilion village. In 2012 it was classified in the first rank of the Classification of Saint-Émilion wine, as a Premier G ...

, the following media coverage frequently described a "war of words" between the two critics. Less dramatic than the predominant press view, Robinson and Parker as of 2008 had a cordial relationship. In 2012, Allen Lane (Penguin) in the UK and Ecco in the US published a 1,200-page book called ''Wine Grapes'' co-authored by Robinson with Julia Harding MW and Jose Vouillamoz which won every major wine book award. The book provides comprehensive details on 1,368 vine varieties and won six major wine book awards. In 2018, Jancis appeared in the film

SOMM 3 ''Somm 3'' is the third film in the SOMM documentary series, following 2013's '' SOMM'' and 2015's '' SOMM: Into the Bottle''. Directed by Jason Wise and distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, SOMM 3 centers on two tastings reminiscent of the 1976 Ju ...

to taste some of the world's finest wines and discuss the

Judgment of Paris (wine) The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French judges carried out t ...

with some of the world's most respected wine figures including the late Steven Spurrier (wine merchant). Robinson is married to the food writer Nick Lander, author of ''The Art of the Restaurateur''; they have three children, Julia, William and Rose.

Honours

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

(2003) *

Ordre du Merite agricole Officier 1999 ribbon

Officer of the

Order of Agricultural Merit The Order of Agricultural Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite agricole) is an order of merit bestowed by the French Republic for outstanding contributions to agriculture. When it was created in 1883, it was second in importance only to the ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

(2010) *

POR Ordem do Merito Agricola Comendador BAR

Commander of the

Order of Entrepreneurial Merit The Order of Entrepreneurial Merit ( pt, Ordem do Mérito Empresarial) is the most junior of the Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** ...

(Category of Agricultural Merit),

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(2011)

Bibliography

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References

External links