Stanley Patrick Evelyn Simon (14 March 1920 - 22 May 2008), known as Pat Simon, was a veteran English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Master of Wine

Master of Wine

Master of Wine is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom...

, wine-merchant and writer on wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

.

Career

After six years at Gresham's School

Gresham's School

Gresham’s School is an independent coeducational boarding school in Holt in North Norfolk, England, a member of the HMC.The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free grammar school for forty boys, following King Henry VIII's dissolution of the Augustinian priory at Beeston Regis...

, Holt

Holt, Norfolk

Holt is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The town is north of the city of Norwich, west of Cromer and east of King's Lynn. The town is on the route of the A148 King's Lynn to Cromer road. The nearest railway station is in the town of Sheringham where access to the...

 (1931 to 1937), and military service during the Second World War, Simon entered the wine trade in 1948, importing wines chiefly from France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, but later also from Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. 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

Master of Wine

Master of Wine is a qualification issued by The Institute of Masters of Wine in the United Kingdom...

 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 glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

es and instructions for decanting

Decantation

Decantation is a process for the separation of mixtures. This is achieved by carefully pouring a solution from a container in order to leave the precipitate in the bottom of the original container...

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 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

External links

• Circle of Wine Writers (accessed 8 September 2007)
• Pat Simon Wines Ltd (accessed 8 September 2007)
• Masters of Wine (accessed 8 September 2007)
• Wine-tasters' Logic at wineanorak.com (accessed 8 September 2007)