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 Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

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 gover ...

, 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 durin ...

Early life and education

Robinson was born in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...

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. ...

, 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. ...

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 contin ...

Career

Robinson started her wine writing career on 1 December 1975 when she became assistant editor for the trade magazine ''

Wine & Spirit ''Wine & Spirit'' was a British monthly magazine on wine, spirits, beers and cocktails, directed at both consumers and the drinks industry. The magazine also organized the annual "International Wine Challenge" and "International Spirits Challeng ...

''. In 1984, she became the first person outside the wine trade to become a Master of Wine. 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, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

' wine consultant, and supervised the BA

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

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'' as "the most respected wine critic and journalist in the world". '' The Oxford Companion to Wine'', 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'' 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 television. This series was later reissued on DVD. 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. She has an honorary doctorate from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

, and was made an OBE in 2003, among numerous other awards for her writing. Her accolades include multiple Glenfiddich 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, 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 to taste some of the world's finest wines and discuss the Judgment of Paris (wine) with some of the world's most respected wine figures including the late

Steven Spurrier (wine merchant) Steven Spurrier (5 October 1941 – 9 March 2021) was a British wine expert and merchant who was described as a champion of French wine. Spurrier organised the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, which unexpectedly elevated the status of California wi ...

. Robinson is married to the food writer

Nick Lander Nicholas Lander (born April 8, 1952 in Manchester, England) is a consultant to and writer on the restaurant industry. He studied at Manchester Grammar School, Jesus College, Cambridge, and Manchester Business School

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 ...

(2003) *

Ordre du Merite agricole Officier 1999 ribbon

Officer of the Order of Agricultural Merit,

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 (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 th ...

(2011)

Bibliography

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References

External links