About Michael Broadbent
John Michael Broadbent, MW (2 May 1927 – 17 March 2020), was a British wine critic, writer and auctioneer in a capacity as a Master of Wine. He was an authority on wine tasting and old wines. == Career == Born in Yorkshire, the elder son of John Broadbent (1891–1963) and Hilary née Batty (1905–1998), he was educated at Oundle School. Commissioned into the Royal Artillery as Second Lieutenant in 1945, he served as Assistant Adjutant at Dover Castle 1947-48, before leaving the Army to train as an architect (ARIBA). In 1952, at the age of twenty-five, Broadbent entered the wine trade first with Layton's, then with the West End wine merchants, Saccone & Speed, and from 1955 with Harvey's of Bristol. In 1960, he received the qualification of Master of Wine. In 1966, he resigned as Sales Director to start wine auctions at the London auction house Christie's which would lead him to trade in and taste a greater number of fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world. His tasting notes are estimated to number over 90,000 in more than 140 notebooks. Until 1992, he was the senior director of Christie's wine department, and he remained a senior consultant with the firm until 2009. 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".
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.