Robin Blackburne

Robin Blackburne, MW.

Robin Blackburne was educated in England and later did his wine “stage” in Bordeaux, the Loire, Cognac and Armagnac - and which included wine studies at The University of Bordeaux. During his late teens, traveling in Europe, he developed an early passion for wine and started his wine trade career with Saccone and Speed in London. After some ten years with S&S, he moved to Bermuda to found the Bristol Cellar, which became the country’s leading wine shippers and merchants and which he headed for some 20 years. He is one of a relatively small number of Masters of Wine in the world.
On selling his equity and leaving Bristol Cellar, he established, in partnership with Neil Empson, Balmoral Wine Shippers Ltd, to ship Champagnes and wines from France and New Zealand to the USA. He established Chateau Investments as a division of Balmoral – and this was the first Wine Investment company enabling wealthy individuals to invest in wine.
Since Balmoral did not occupy him full time, he founded Robin Blackburne Ltd, a firm of International Wine Consultants. His first major assignment was to advise Michael Cliff on certain key aspects of the newly-formed Vintners International Inc. VI had just undertaken the massive acquisition of the group of Seagram Wine companies. Robin Blackburne’s role included negotiations for major new European wine brands and to help build the imported wines component of the organization. He was responsible for wine education for all the Vintners International Brands and traveled extensively presenting tasting and giving wine talks to key VI clients around the country.
He has visited the vineyards of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Corsica, Madeira, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and South Africa. He has visited the vineyards of Bordeaux some forty times and is deemed a so-called ‘expert’ on the wines of Bordeaux.
He has presented tastings and lectured extensively on wine throughout the U.S.A. and Europe and has conducted Wine and Art Auctions for Charity in New York, Aspen and Bermuda. He has also been retained as an on-board enrichment lecturer for Royal Viking Lines, Silver Sea and Norwegian Cruise Lines. He has judged at wine competitions, including the prestigious California State Fair in Sacramento and the Dallas Morning News Wine Competition.
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