Broadbent: Consumer 'so confused' by wine

Big business and a lack of consumer knowledge are the latest challenges facing the wine industry, says Decanter columnist Michael Broadbent.

On the anniversary of his 400th column in the magazine, the former head of Christie’s wine department told decanter.com ‘My feeling is that consumers have never had so much choice but they have never been so confused.

‘The whole world is making a good standard of wine today and they need some guidance,’ he said.

Broadbent has been writing about wine for more than 50 years and has seen many changes in that time. However, he lamented the demise of the smaller players. ‘Big business seems to be taking over and I don’t like the way things are going,’ he added.

His 400th column in September’s issue of Decanter takes a look back at his wine-filled career.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).