Christopher Burr MW
Fine Wine Consultancy
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About
Christopher Burr - Master of Wine
Christopher has been involved in the wine business for over 45 years, and his interest started even as a school boy and student. He has also been involved at a senior level in the spirit industry (as marketing manager in the UK for Bacardi Rum and Remy Martin Cognac) and brewing industry (as Marketing and Commercial Director of Bass Mitchells' and Butlers’ and also European Director of Bass Brewers).
As a viola and singing student at The Royal College of Music, he spent many summer vacations in Europes great vineyard regions, picking grapes and working in cellars. When the decision as to what career he should follow loomed, the restricted earning potential of a professional musician led him to go off to Business School then follow his other passion wine as a career, keeping music as a much loved and regular hobby.
Baron Eric de Rothschild, Marcia Mondavi , Robert Drouhin, Don Ferrari Carano, Baroness Evelyne de Ladoucette of de Vogué, Marc Chapoutier, Jean Luc Pepin of de Vogué, Madam Carano, Bernhard Breuer, and Christopher Burr
Part of the international wine community
Starting in the 1970’s in Bordeaux, living in Margaux and working for Alexis Lichine , he developed his knowledge of vineyard management, winemaking and the commerce of wine. He subsequently worked with many great producers importing marketing and selling their wines, such great Houses as Krug Champagne, Bollinger Champagne, Joseph Drouhin, De Vogué, Bonneau du Martray, Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), Chapoutier, Mondavi, Petaluma, Klein Constantia and Taylors and Fonseca Ports.
Christies
Christopher Burr as head of wine sales at Christie’s auction house London.
Before establishing his own advisory business he was the International Head and Director of Wine at Christies Auction House, and led many seminal tastings and sales of great collectables during the late 1990s.
Master of Wine and other awards
Christopher passed the rigorous and highly demanding and prestigious Master of Wine exams in 1995 at the first attempt, winning the Villa Maria Prize for his papers on Viticulture. He thus became one of only 416 MW’s from 31 countries worldwide.
Whilst at Christies the advent of production of counterfeit rare bottles started to emerge, and Christopher was very much at the forefront of identifying techniques and worked extensively with the FBI in New York and Interpol in Europe and the Far East on identification and crime prevention in this area.
More recently he has been extensively involved in secure packaging and product tracking techniques for top producers.
In recent years various awards and honours have been granted to Christopher for his work in wine; a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts for work in wine education, Commandeur du Bontemps de Medoc and Graves,Sauternes et Barsac, and Chevalier de Tastevin, Keeper of the Quaich and others.
Current Main Activities
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Other Current Projects
Liberation Tardive
Christopher is a founding executive of the Liberation Tardive Foundation, a not for profit Foundation promoting the value and quality of age for wines. The current trend being to sell and drink top quality wine far too young. "great wine needs time".
Low or Nil Carbon Alternative to Glass Bottle
Whilst glass has proven to be the best container for wine since the 1700's, a 500gram glass when blown in glassworks emits 500 grams of CO2 into the atmosphere, and is 68% of the carbon footprint of wine, including growing, winemaking, packaging, shipping and retailing.
There are 36 billion bottles blown each year around the World (Source UN Climate Research).
Christopher is in advanced stages of trialling an alternative to glass. Whilst glass will probably always be used for wines which benefit from long-term storage and ageing, 98 % of wine volumes are consumed within six months of being bought.
Testimonials
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Christopher Burr MW
One Hundred Steps Lodge
Chapter Mews
Windsor Castle
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 1RQ