Oz Clarke is one of the world's leading wine experts, whose formidable reputation is based on his extensive wine knowledge and accessible, no-nonsense approach. His passion for the subject dates from his student days at Oxford University, where he won tasting competitions at a precociously early age. Since then his tasting skills have won him an international reputation and he is acknowledged as having one of the finest palates of anyone writing about wine today.

He brings a refreshingly unorthodox wit and directness to the subject and has won all the major wine writing awards both in the UK and the USA, including the Glenfiddich (three times), André Simon, Wine Guild (three times), James Beard, Julia Child, World Food Media and Lanson (five times) awards; and most recently in 2006 he won the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition International Drinks Communicator of the Year Award. In 1999 he won the Lanson Special Millennium Award for his outstanding contribution to wine communication and education. In 2001 he was the keynote speaker at the Boston Wine Expo, the world's largest consumer wine event, and has been the keynote speaker at both the Wine Experience in New York and the California Wine Experience in San Francisco, where he was voted best keynote speaker by those attending. Oz’s frequent BBC TV and radio appearances are broadcast around the world. Oz’s latest TV series, ‘Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure’ is back on BBC this autumn, this time the pair taking on California.

Before wine took over his life in 1984, Oz was a fulltime actor and singer, appearing in West End hit shows such as Evita, Sweeney Todd and The Mitford Girls, and touring with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

'Oz Clarke is the nearest thing to genius in the world of wine writing.' Harpers

'Clarke has a remarkably acute palate, a refreshingly unpretentious attitude about wine and the writing talent to bring it all to life on the printed page.' Wine Spectator

'real success comes because Oz Clarke knows wine inside out and has genuine talent in getting the info across in an easliy understood, entertaining and non-pretentious manner. Man of the people is Oz style, making him currently on of the UK's top wine writers.' The Belfast Sunday Life