The Wine Writers’ Hall of Fame of the Wine Media Guild is pleased to announce the class of inductees for 2010. They will be celebrated at a dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City in June. They are:

Michael Broadbent

Michael Broadbent was born in West Yorkshire on May 2, 1927 (a great Port vintage!) into a mill-owning family. Michael trained as an architect but switched to wine in 1952.

Both a classical pianist and artist, Michael is best known as a wine writer and international wine auctioneer, founding the first Wine Department at Christie’s in 1966; followed in 1969 by the first wine auctions in the USA, and the first Napa Valley wine auction in 1981. He established regular Christie’s wine auctions in Geneva, Amsterdam and Chicago; conducted wine auctions in Sydney, Hong Kong, for the VDP in Germany and elsewhere. His volume, Vintage Wine (Harcourt), is a basic reference for the wine world, as is his
Michael Broadbent’s Wine Tasting (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides).

Official positions included: Chairman of the ‘Institute of Masters of Wine’ (1970); President of the ‘International Wine & Food Society’ (1985-1992); Master of the Worshipful Company of Distillers (1990/1992); Liveryman of the Vintners’ Company (2005-present ); Chairman of the ‘Wine & Spirit Trades’ Benevolent Society’ (1991/1992); the first President of the ‘Wine & Spirit Education Trust” (2007).

Principal International Awards: Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Mérite (France 1989); Médaille de la Ville de Paris (1989); Distinguished Service Award (Wine Spectator, New York, 1991).

Lifetime Achievement Awards include: the Society of Bacchus of America (1993), and the International Wine Challenge (2008).

President of the Fête de la Fleur (Bordeaux 1988) ; Membre d’Honneur de l’Académie du Vin and de Bordeaux (1973) ; Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, Grand Officier (2006).

Karen MacNeil

In style, knowledge, skill, passion, and presentation, no one tops Karen MacNeil on wine. The preeminent wine educator, consultant and writer has earned her stripes, enchanting audiences and winning every major wine award in the English language. Her articles on wine and food have been published in more than 50 United States magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, and Town & Country. She is the author of the award-winning book, The Wine Bible, a best-selling wine book in the United States that has sold more than half a million copies since it was released. Ten years in the making, The Wine Bible has been called the most comprehensive and authoritative book on wine written by an American author, and Karen has been acknowledged as the “best wine teacher” in the country.

Karen is the host of Emmy-award winning Wine, Food & Friends with Karen MacNeil, the first television series on wine in the United States. This thirteen-part series reached a national audience on PBS. In 2006 her companion book, Wine, Food & Friends, was released.

Karen is the creator and Chairman of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley. The multi-million dollar wine center has been called the “Harvard of wine education.” In 2007, she launched the Napa Valley Wine Educators Academy, a global education initiative that attracts wine instructors from all over the world to the Napa Valley.

Karen conducts wine seminars nationwide and is asked to give numerous keynote speeches. Her corporate clients have included Oracle, American Express, Lexus, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, Time Inc., NBC, Viking, and J.P. Morgan. She is the immediate past wine consultant for Singapore Airlines and Sunset Magazine.

Dan Berger

Dan Berger began writing about wine in 1976 and has been nationally syndicated since 1979. He and his wife, Juliann Savage, also publish a private weekly wine newsletter, Dan Berger’s Vintage Experiences, available by subscription. He contributes articles to Wines & Vines, Decanter Magazine, the privately published California Grapevine, Wine Press Northwest, trade journals Cheers and Beverage Dynamics, and numerous others.

Mr. Berger was a reporter for The Associated Press from 1967 to 1976. He joined the San Diego Union in 1978 and wrote three wine columns per week for the newspaper and Copley News Service. He was subsequently Business Editor and wine columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat; was syndicated by The New York Times Syndicate, and later became full-time wine columnist and reporter for the Los Angeles Times. In 1996, he began publishing Vintage Experiences, a weekly newsletter on wine and food. Mr. Berger also has been a restaurant reviewer for two publications as well as a judge at numerous international wine competitions.

Among his honors are the Wines & Vines Wine Writer of the Year award; the Father Junipero Serra Award of the California Wine Patrons of Los Angeles, and the Wine Literary Award, presented by the Wine Appreciation Guild. Three of his five books have been on wine, including “Beyond the Grapes: An Inside Look at Napa Valley” and “Beyond the Grapes: An Inside Look at Sonoma County.”

Andre Simon (1877-1970)

(posthumous)

Andre Simon was a wine merchant, gourmet and prolific wine writer. Hugh Johnson describes him as “the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for the first half of the 20th century and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years.” His The History of the Champagne Trade in England was published in installments in the Wine Trade Review. In 1908 he created the Wine Trade Club with friends, organizing tastings and technical lectures that foreshadowed the Institute of Masters of Wine.

In 1931, Mr. Simon and a group of friends held a dinner in honour of Professor George Saintsbury, author of the classic Notes on a Cellar Book. This gathering turned into the Saintsbury Club, which continues to this day. One of those present was AJA Symons. In 1933, the two established the Wine & Food Society, with Mr. Simon as President (and Editor of the Society journal, Wine and Food). Books include: The History of the Wine Trade in England from Roman Times to the End of the 17th Century, in three volumes (1906, 1907 and 1909); A Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy; and in 1919 the Bibliotheca Vinaria.