RAYMOND BLAKE

Raymond Blake is one of Ireland’s leading wine writers. He is a former schoolmaster and for a number of years he juggled the contrasting challenges of teaching by day and writing by night (and very early morning) before giving up quadratic equations and Shakespearean plays for the joys of the freelance life in 2000.

His enthusiasm for wine is boundless and while he freely acknowledges that there are some who have more expertise than he, equally he has yet to meet a fellow wine lover who tops him in the enthusiasm department.

He writes as a consumer for fellow consumers and, as an independent voice, his judgement and opinions are widely respected. Not for him the tinder dry tasting note. Rather, he likes to get behind the wine, tell where it comes from, who made it, set it in context.

He is Wine Editor of the highly regarded Food & Wine Magazine, a position he has held since its launch in 1997. As such his travels take him to most of the far-flung corners of the wine world, though his spiritual home is Burgundy, where he and his wife realised a long-time ambition by buying a house a few years ago. He also writes for numerous other publications and is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. In 2006 he was inducted as a Chevalier du Tastevin in Burgundy.

CONTACT
Raymond Blake can be contacted by e-mail at this address.