Wine critics have been paying their respects to Pamela Vandyke Price, considered one of the first female wine writers, who has died aged 90 after a long illness.
Price, who was born in Leicester in 1923, worked as wine correspondent for The Times and author of many books, including Guide to the Wines of Bordeaux, Entertaining with Wine and Wine Lore: Legends and Traditions.
She was also instrumental in establishing the Circle of Wine Writers, of which she eventually became president and then, in 1991, its only trustee in perpetuity in return for ‘services rendered’, the Circle said in a statement.
‘I owe my own membership of the Circle to her,’ said Steven Spurrier, Decanter consultant editor. ‘Pamela Vandyke Price, or PVP as she was widely known, was in her colleagues’ and her own view, the grande dame of wine writing.’
‘She was one of the most knowledgeable of her generation,’ wrote Jancis Robinson MW in a blog post this week.
Alongside her writing, PVP also gained notoriety in the wine world for her no-nonsense attitude. The Rev Neil Fairlamb wrote that PVP had given instructions for her funeral some 20 years ago, and had included a short list of those not invited.
In her memoirs, A Woman of Taste, published in 1990, PVP wrote, ‘Maybe because humility is essential in the tasting-room, I am very self-opinionated outside it.’
Spurrier said, ‘That was PVP as she will be fondly remembered.’
Written by Chris Mercer
