Stuart Pigott (born 26 May 1960 in

Orpington Orpington is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary Cray, sou ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

) is a British

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

who has lived in Berlin since 1993. Pigott mostly writes in German, and focuses on

German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Celts and Ancient Rome, Roman eras. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the st ...

. He writes for the specialist magazines ''Feinschmecker'' and ''Weingourmet'' as well as the Sunday edition of the ''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

''.

Biography

Between 1979 and 1986, Pigott studied various art-related subjects off and on at Goldsmiths College of Art, St. Martins School of Art and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

. He ended up with a master's degree in the History of Culture. During his studies he started as a wine writer, and published his first piece in ''

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 equiv ...

'' magazine in 1984. Pigott moved to Berlin with his wife,

sommelier A ''sommelier'' ( , , ), ''chef de vin'' or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role of the ''s ...

and later food writer Ursula Heinzelmann, in late 1993 and published his first German-language book in 1994. From early on, he joined fellow British wine writer Hugh Johnson in taking a critical view towards the mass production mentality that prevailed in parts of the German wine industry, and thus became popular with more quality-oriented producers. Taking his inspiration from

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prom ...

and

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

, Pigott has in recent years tried to emulate the style of

Gonzo journalism Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to have been first used in 1970 to descri ...

in the wine area. He has published a number of free educational wine videos in the "Gonzo" style on the Internet. In the semester 2008/2009 he took lessons at the University of Applied Sciences in Geisenheim comprising the

Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute The Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute was founded in 1872 and is located in the town of Geisenheim, in Germany's Rheingau region. In 1876 Swiss-born professor Hermann Müller joined the institute, where he developed his namesake grape variety ...

Stuart Pigott's five commandments

As part of his educational material, Pigott uses the following five commandments on wine:, accessed on 16 March 2008 # A wine is as good or bad as it tastes and smells to you. # For wine, there is no connection between price and quality. # Wine is not nearly so complicated or delicate as generally assumed. # There are no wrong words to describe wine. # There is only one error that is possible to make in connection with wine: to ruin other people's pleasure.

References

External links

Stuart Pigott official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pigott, Stuart 1960 births Living people British wine critics British male journalists British expatriates in Germany People from Orpington Journalists from Berlin Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung people

Biography

Stuart Pigott's five commandments

See also

References

External links