Bill Blatch obituary

My brother, Bill Blatch, who has died aged 76 of a heart attack, devoted himself joyfully to the wine trade in Bordeaux for 40 years, selling across the world and supplying the influential Southwold annual tastings for the UK wine trade, which he organised each year with the London traders Farr Vintners.

Bill – described as “the wine whisperer of Bordeaux” – made Sauternes his life, and played an important role as a bridge between Bordeaux wine houses and their many followers in the UK and the US. Never pretentious, he had the habit of decanting fine vintages into plastic cola bottles he carried around for the job, most memorably a 1964 Moët that he produced for a Masters of Wine meeting. He relished his American road trips promoting his beloved petits châteaux.