Night time in France and we have just been killing a few bottles while paying tribute to Steven. He was the most generous hearted human being I have come across. I never ever heard him speak a negative word about somebody else in the 40 years I knew him. So kind and so helpful to so many people.
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Very sad. A true gentleman. We spent a weekend with him and Bella when he agreed to MC our charity auction. He was an excellent story teller and did it so effortlessly without notes. I had the pleasure of spending several hours with him and Bella driving them from and to LAX. Very self effacing and kind. When we went to London after that we had lunch with Steven several times. He was most proud of his wine education activities. He was also vey candid, as his autobiography shows. The world will be a lesser place without him.
I met him around 1975 when I worked for people who loved to entertain. And he and I loved to be entertained. He told us he was going to do a tasting but we really didn’t think much of it. Everyone was doing tastings then. The movie shows him as somewhat of a snob, which he wasn’t. It might have galled him that somebody who was then sixty or so portrayed Steven when he was 35.
I remember lunch with him at a restaurant in Paris called Morot Gaudry. The owner was pouring old Calvados for Jon Winroth, then the wine writer for the Int’l Herald Tribune. We got to enjoy that tasting the highlight of which was a pear/apple blend sixty years old.
Such a great loss. Such a pivotal figure and, I am learning, a genuinely nice man. I read his book and enjoyed it thoroughly. RIP.
The wine world lost a great one. Very sad. RIP
Sad news indeed. I already had a bottle of 2013 Lilian Ladouys open when I read the news. Fittingly enough, its Decanter review on CT was from Mr. Spurrier.
Sad news. I met him twice in Bordeaux (Primeurs and Lunch). A real Gentleman. RIP.