Broadbent, J. Michael

(1927–), wine taster, writer, and auctioneer known particularly for his experience of fine, old wines. Broadbent trained initially as an architect in London but was not as enthused by its more prosaic aspects as by the fine wines to which a family friend had introduced him. He joined the late Tommy Layton as a wine trade trainee in 1952. Three years later he joined harveys of bristol, then in its heyday, where he worked for Harry waugh and eventually became UK sales director. In 1966, partly as a result of his own personal enterprise in corresponding with the chairman, Broadbent was taken on by Christie’s to revive their, and the London, wine auction business. From then until 1992 he ran Christie’s wine department and in that capacity traded in and tasted a greater number of fine and rare wines than anyone else in the world.