11 Facts About Michael Broadbent

John Michael Broadbent, MW was a British wine critic, writer and auctioneer in a capacity as a Master of Wine.

Michael Broadbent was an authority on wine tasting and old wines.

Michael Broadbent was educated at Oundle School and trained as an architect but changed career, in 1952, at the age of twenty-five, and entered the wine trade first with Layton's, next with the West End Wine merchants, Saccone and Speed, and, from 1955 with Harvey's of Bristol.

Journalist Harry Eyres, who worked as a junior expert at Christie's, wrote that Broadbent "created a small niche of glamour for himself as a jet-setting wine celebrity, while everybody else in the office toiled in near Dickensian conditions".

Michael Broadbent awarded a wine up to five stars, a system unlike the numerical score of the American wine critic Robert Parker.

In 1979, Michael Broadbent was appointed Chevalier of the Ordre national du Merite, as well as an honorary member of the Academie du Vin de Bordeaux and numerous other French wine associations.

Michael Broadbent stood as Sheriff of the City of London in 1993.

Michael Broadbent was widowed by his first wife, Daphne Broadbent.

Michael Broadbent died on 17 March 2020, in Berkshire, aged 92.

Michael Broadbent was among the wine industry experts whose association with alleged wine forger Hardy Rodenstock during the 1980s led to some embarrassment.

In July 2009, it was announced that Michael Broadbent would sue Random House, the publishers of The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace, an account of the "Jefferson bottles affair" and its court cases, for defamation of character, on claims that the book asserts Michael Broadbent invented an auction bid and contains references to him colluding with Rodenstock.