Michael Broadbent, obsessive wine note-taker and for long the head of Christie's wine department, has already given us two volumes of his tasting notes in The Great Vintage Wine Book Vols I and II from Mitchell Beazley.
He's been working hard on a third volume recently. I know, since I have been the recipient of several telephone calls along the lines of 'Do you remember exactly when it was we were at So-and-so's tasting such-and-such?' He has already filled 133 little red notebooks with his impressions of practically every wine that has come his way, and with this new book, the first in a decade, we can look forward to his acute, often entertaining, and decidedly European observations on more recent vintages. (The most recent vintage in The Great Vintage Wine Book Vol II is 1991.) Classic, traditional wines are his greatest strength.
To order the new book Vintage Wine (Little Brown/Websters in association with Christie's) contact ChristiesBooks@christies.com. It costs £30 till January and £35 thereafter – plus p&p of £3 for UK, £6/$10 for overseas surface mail and £10/$16 for airmail.
Not ones to miss a trick, incidentally, Christie's have organised a wine auction on 17 October, 'A tribute to Michael Broadbent's 50 years in the wine trade', an excuse to prise various large and/or glorious bottles out of wine producers' own cellars. Contact Christie's for more information.
On the cover of the sale catalogue is a black-and-white photograph of Michael taking an auction 'circa 1977'. Can anyone help me with the identity of the seven eager buyers, the backs of whose heads also decorate this bit of memorabilia?