Pat Simon

Stanley Patrick Evelyn Simon (14 March 1920 - 22 May 2008), known as Pat Simon, was a veteran English Master of Wine, wine-merchant and writer on wine.

Career

After six years at Gresham's School, Holt (1931 to 1937), and military service during the Second World War, Simon entered the wine trade in 1948, importing wines chiefly from France, Germany, Italy, and Portugal, but later also from Spain, South Africa, Australia and the United States. Going into business on his own account as an importer and wholesaler of wines (trading as Pat Simon Wines Ltd), by 1969 he rose to the rank of Master of Wine of the Institute of Masters of Wine and also became a frequent contributor to specialist periodicals.

Simon's book "Wine-tasters' Logic" (2000) distils the experiences of fifty years of wine-tasting and is also full of anecdotes of the wine trade of long ago. The first part of the book guides readers through the concepts behind wine-tasting, exploring areas like aroma, balance, finish, and tannin. The second part is about developing expertise, including the choice of glasses and instructions for decanting wine correctly. Wineanorak.com said of the book "Fifty years in the wine business have equipped Pat Simon with a nose and palate of formidable finesse. His ruminations on how a taster learns to taste, how memory and appreciation are deepened, and how the intensely subjective experience of tasting wine can be communicated meaningfully, are distilled in "Wine Tasters' Logic"."

Publications

*"Wine-tasters' Logic" (Mitchell Beazley, London, 2000) ISBN 978-0571202874
*"Wine-tasters' Logic" (Faber & Faber Paperbacks, London, 2001) ISBN 057120287X

References

* [http://www.winewriters.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5&Itemid=28 Circle of Wine Writers] (accessed 8 September 2007)
* [http://www.touchlondon.co.uk/business/list/bid/4929837 Pat Simon Wines Ltd] (accessed 8 September 2007)
* [http://www.masters-of-wine.org/MembersWhoAre.aspx Masters of Wine] (accessed 8 September 2007)
* [http://wineanorak.com/bookshop/catread.htm "Wine-tasters' Logic"] at wineanorak.com (accessed 8 September 2007)
*"Old Greshamian Club Book" (Cheverton & Son Ltd, Cromer, 1999)