A long story about how I ended up in America!
By Bartholomew Broadbent (Or, skip straight to the bios at the end)

A week after doing a cooking course in England, I was living in Cognac, giving guided tours of the Hennessy cellars and gave myself food poisoning! Back in England, after a short stint at Harrods, in the wine department, I then shipped off to Australia. [You’ll have to wait until my book comes out to hear about the, frankly, unbelievable stories that happen to a pasty white 19 year old Brit, who spends half a year ‘down under’].

After Oz, back in London, having a fantastic social life, living it up and running a wine shop in Pall Mall for Harvey’s, I threw it all in to move to North America. Why? I still ask myself, but I’ll tell you how.

We had the Directors of Allied, a multi national company, having a Board Meeting in the cellars of my wine shop, when a regular customer and old family friend from the wine trade came in after a rather boozy lunch at his Club. I had to keep this chap quiet, so I gave him a glass of sherry, ushered him into a rather large closet and locked the door. Every twenty minutes or so, I’d unlock the door and fill up his glass. After about 5 glasses, he slurred, “They would like you in Canada!”

Before long, after this episode, I received an invitation to an interview at the Quebec House and found myself with a visa and a job offer in Montreal. My father’s advice was that I could “stay in England, and become just another young man in the wine trade, or you could go to Canada and get some interesting experience.” So, off to Montreal I went.

A year later, working for Schenley, I was transferred to Toronto, I became a Wine Consultant for them. During this period, I met my future employer. I had a choice of working for Veuve Clicquot in Chicago, reporting to Patrick Baseden (who coincidentally became our Bordeaux supplier), or working for the Symington family, owners of six Port houses. I chose the latter and was supposed to work representing them east of the Mississippi, until a week before starting when their U.S. agent, based in San Francisco, died. Plans changed and I was moved there and told to set up an import company for them.

After starting Premium Port Wines and running it for ten years, thrown in the deep end, I had by fluke become known as America’s foremost authority on Port and Madeira (we introduced Madeira a couple of years after starting PPW). I hit the glass ceiling, having not married a Symington daughter, so I left to start Broadbent Selections in 1996.

Initially, I just wanted to compete in the Port and Madeira field. Ferreira, Portugal’s number one selling Port (number five in the world) was so badly represented that the owners, the Guedes family, offered to let me represent them. I knew then that I had the foundation for a good business.

At the same time, I wanted to start my own brand of Port, Broadbent, which debuted with the famous 1994 vintage. A bit later, we added Madeira and more recently a Vinho Verde.

Shortly, word got out and some old contacts from my days in Canada contacted me. First was Louis Guntrum winery. “You no longer work for someone else, so now you can import our wines!” I couldn’t argue with this logic, so we signed them up.

We decided to venture from being exclusively Port and Madeira but had to come up with a new philosophy. Today, Port only represents 15% of our sales. I decided that the focus of Broadbent Selections would be to represent family owned businesses. The wine, obviously, had to be of very high and interesting quality, but equally important, the suppliers had to be honorable, decent, long sighted and share our philosophy of value for money.

What about my father, Michael Broadbent? Although he is prominently featured on this website, he has no ownership or financial interest in Broadbent Selections. However, he has been very generous with his help and support. Whenever he is in America, he loyally offers to help. In fact, we get on really well and we love hosting tastings together. We play off each other and I cheekily pull his leg and he puts up with endless teasing. He gets his own back by telling tall tales about me!

In fact when I started Broadbent Port, he said to my mother, “but that’s my name!” Luckily, my mother dispelled any possible tension by saying, “yes, but it’s his name too.”

Since then, Michael has rather enjoyed having Broadbent Port to give to his hosts in Bordeaux and he took a very active role in our Madeira, going himself to the island to select the wines for Broadbent Madeira. My mother helped and her notes were equally, if not more, compelling.

If you have read this far, you must have too much time on your hands, remember, any time spent not drinking Port is wasted time, so if you don’t have a glass in your hand, go to the “Buy Our Wines On Line” tab now!

Meanwhile, for those who need a detailed bio of myself or my father we have included those below.

Enjoy our wines and let us know your opinions!

Bartholomew Broadbent

Known as a lively, witty and informative wine lecturer, Bartholomew is also one of the world’s foremost authorities on Port and Madeira. He is credited for being responsible for the growth of Port consumption in North America during the mid 1980’s and was responsible for the re-introduction of Madeira to America in 1989, instrumental in its growth since then.

Bartholomew Broadbent’s company, Broadbent Selections, Inc., founded in 1996, is the exclusive US national importer for some of the worlds most sought after family wineries, including Chateau Musar, Warwick Estate, Spy Valley, Ferreira,  Quinta do Crasto, Aresti, Louis Guntrum, Montsarra Cava, Pago de Larrainzar, Vilafonte, Dragon's Hollow and Champagne Delbeck. He also produces his own Broadbent Port and Madeira in Portugal. See www.broadbent.com for more information.

Raised in the English wine trade in a formal apprenticeship to his famous father, Michael Broadbent MW [Director of Christie’s and prolific wine author], Bartholomew has also worked in London for Harrod’s [Wine Department], Harvey’s Fine Wine Merchants in Pall Mall and Christie’s. He worked in Australia for Rothbury Estate and for Yalumba Winery. In France, he worked in Cognac for Hennessy and in Paris for L’Academie du Vin. He moved to Montreal to work for Schenley Canada Inc, later moving to Toronto as their Wine Consultant, also responsible for their fine wine sales in Ottawa.

In the United States, he set up Premium Port Wines, Inc. for the Symington family, which he ran for 10 years, before leaving to create Broadbent Selections, Inc in 1996. In 2006 he met David Henderson and set up a JV to launch Dragon's Hollow, the first good wine from China.

Bartholomew Broadbent’s other achievements and honors include the following:

• Named by Decanter Magazine as one of the “fifty most influential people in the wine world - the faces to watch in the new millennium.” (June 1997)
• 50% owner of Dragon's Hollow brand from China
• 50% owner of China Fine Wines LLC
• Broadbent Selections, Inc. was nominated Importer of the Year 2005 by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
• Broadbent Selections, Inc. was named by Entrepreneur Magazine and Dun & Bradstreet as one of the 100 fastest growing companies in 1998
• Nominated as Small Business Person of the Year by the SBA in 1998
• Radio KFOG’s “wine guy”
• On the Advisory Board of Travent (www.finewinetravel.com)
• On the Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan College of New York (Wine and Spirits MBA)
• Director of the Reserve Tastings and Speaker for Food and Wine Magazine’s Classic in Aspen [every year since 1986]
• Lecturer and Member of the Society of Wine Educators
• Past Director of Steven Spurrier’s L’Academie du Vin
• Judge in the 1986 repeat of Steven Spurrier’s legendary 1976 Napa versus Bordeaux tasting
• Founder of L’Academie du Vin in Toronto
• Profiled by the Wine Spectator (1986)
• Profiled by M Quarterly (Japan) (issue 434)
• Profiled by The Wine News (1989)
• Liveryman, The Worshipful Company of Distillers (London)
• Awarded the Freedom of the City of London
• Cavaleiro; Confraria do Vinho do Porto (1989)
• Commandeur d’Honneur; Commanderie de Bontemps de Medoc et des Graves (1988)
• Chevalier; Confrerie des Chevaliers du Trou Normand (1983)
• Chevalier; Ordre Illustre des Chevaliers de Meduse (1983)
• Past permanent tasting panel member for Bon Appetit Magazine
• International Wine Judge [on numerous tasting panels and at wine competitions around the world]
• Past producer of wine related cable television shows in Canada
• Past contributor to Wine Tidings magazine and Wine Canada
• Past Wine Director for The Sharper Image
• Past instructor in Canada for the Certificate, Higher Certificate and Diploma courses for the Independent Wine & Spirit Education Trust (now known as the WSET)
• Past lecturer on the QEII, QM2, Crystal Cruises and Radisson Seven Seas Cruise Lines
• Auctioneer at numerous Charity wine auctions [debuting at the second annual Napa Valley Wine Auction]