I grew up in England, London, but was sent away to boarding school.

I went to boarding school, an interesting experience. We grow up faster.

It was a school that nurtured independence and basically we were told that we didn't have to go to lessons if we didn't want to. We didn't have yo go to class at all, but it was our future and if we didn't get to class it would be our responsibility for our own future. A lot of my time was spent drinking coffee during my chemistry and math lessons.

You grew up with a very well-known father.

Yes, Michael Broadbent. His fame comes from several things, one of which is the founding of the wine department of Christie's in 1966. Basically he started wine auctions in the world, taking them to America, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Europe and the Napa Valley Wine auction, with Mondavi. As a result of this, he got to taste most of the great, great old wines of the world. He also wrote Guidance in the Techniques of Tasting (1966) and The Great Vintage Wine Book, it basically was the first book with tasting notes, and Wine Tasting (1968).

Was it a forgone conclusion that you would be in the wine business?

No. He was very against my sister or I going into the wine business because it would have been easy for us to get a job and not make any effort and just coast.

Basically on his reputation.

Yes, but my sister had a brief spell and then went to law school and now she is a judge in England. Sometimes I wish I'd done an easier job. I think Hugh Grant's role in life is what I should have been destined for (laughter) but anyway, I ended up in the wine business. I left England when I was 20.

You went down under.

I went to Australia when I was 18-19 for six months. I worked for two wineries, Yalumba Winery and Rothbury Estates, then traveled around and went to Harvey's Fine Wine Merchant and was then offered a job as a wine consultant, by Schenley Canada Inc, and took that.  The idea of doing that was when my father said to me, 'You can stay in England and just be another young man in the wine business or do something interesting and go abroad and come back.'

So you went to Montreal.

I went to Montreal first then got transferred to Toronto for 4 years. Through that I met the Symington Family and mutinied to the USA at the tender age of 25. I went to San Francisco and started a wine importing company for them, Premium Port Wines, which I ran for 10 years. I reached the glass ceiling, I didn't marry their daughter, I already married someone else. I left and basically started my own business, Broadbent Selections, which initially was going to specialize in just Port and Madeira, which is what I was doing for the Symingtons.

Which is only 15% of your total sales now, correct?

Today, it's less than that. We've progressed from being a Port and Madeira house, we decided to produce our own brands under the name of Broadbent. We started importing Ferreira ports and Quinta do Crasto, but then we were approached by friends with wineries then we decided our focus would be picking up the best wine from each region.

Your wine selection is very varied, from all over the world, Portugal, South Africa, New Zealand even the new one, Dragon's Hollow, from China. Tell us about them.

We basically decided to go to the emerging regions. My company, which was founded in 1996, went to Portugal and snapped up the two best wines. We went to Lebanon, Chateau Musar, the best wine in that country. New Zealand was a young wine producing country back then and managed to secure Spy Valley. The latest thing is China, Dragon's Hollow. I was actually out in China, as a speaker at the first wine expo there, and I decided since I was being paid to be there, I might as well go look for wines to import into the US from China and also look for an importer to buy my Vinho Verde, Port and Madeira and ship it to China.  I was successful in finding an importer and we now sell those in China. I came home empty handed because I couldn't find a decent wine in China, even though they are the fifth biggest producer in the world now.

Shortly after my return, David Henderson, started the first wine importing company in China 25 years ago, (he divested of that) contacted me.  He had divested of that, but had planted wine vines years ago. He wanted to know if I would be interested in importing them (his wines). He said he had the skills to make the wine but didn't have anyone to sell it. Basically he offered me 50% of the company, so I'm now a 50% owner of Dragon's Hollow Wine from China.

The vineyard is very large, it's about 6,000 hectares.

Yes, but we only use about 150 for Dragon's Hollow. We lease the land from a bigger property and we make our wine at a winery. We only export Dragon's Hollow, we don't sell it in China at the moment.

You are known as the foremost expert on port. Decanter stated you are "One of the 50 most influential wine people in the world." How does that play in with your father?

I think he's very proud actually. I didn't excel academically at school and thought he never really expected very much of me. It's nice knowing that I never really pleased him when I was at school, but in the second half of my life I have made my family happy.

I read that when you first started the company he mentioned to your mom, "That's my name," or something along those lines.

Yes. I started Broadbent Port and he said to my mother, 'Well that's my name,' and my mother said 'yes, but it's his name too.' (Laughter)

I ended up trademarking the name, (laughing), so it's definitely my name too.

Your dad wasn't involved initially, but he has since been involved with respect to the Madeira, correct?

He is the most complete Madeira nut, so we sent him and my mother to the island to select the blends. They both sent back their tasting notes and my mother's tasting notes were fantastic. Of one Madeira she wrote, 'This is a deathbed raiser.' I asked her what that meant. She said if she was on her deathbed and had a glass of this "it would get me up and on my feet again." That was a good description.

Basically my parents have been very supportive of the business and they've helped. When they travel to the states they are happy to do tastings with me.  I have an irreverent humor against him(dad) and I think he enjoys being teased a bit.

Why port?

When I was in Canada I was representing amazing wineries from around the world. Veuve Clicquot offered me a job in Chicago and the Symingtons offered me a job, with a choice of living in New York or San Francisco, doing port. I just felt that champagne was little bit boring to be drinking champagne every day as opposed to port. There is more variety in port, and at that time in around 1985, no one was really drinking port in America. I managed to carve out a little niche as the first port expert in the states. Back then the only people drinking port were crusty old men in leather chairs in private clubs.

Like the Explorers Club and such.

Yes. I did tastings all around the country and over the course of a few years I saw the demographic was changing. What started with 70 year old men, gradually turned to 60, 50, then 40, and that's when women started drinking port.

I remember one of my all time favorite tastings was in San Francisco, in front of a group of 300 women, called the Spinsters of San Francisco, aged between 21 and 32. I realized when I looked out at this crowd that port had finally made it. This was going to be the launch into the younger generation. Now you can find port in every bar and restaurant in the country.

You do many dinners across the country. Port is being used a lot more in cooking.  Whereas twenty years ago where a recipe might call for a red wine, today port may be the preference. Do you think the pairings, and learning of ports versatility, is responsible for this with respect to food?

Yes, although strangely that's a double-edged sword. If people use true port from Portugal, they'll realize the magic of using port in cooking, the same with Madeira. One of the problems is that a lot of Madeira used for cooking is domestically produced wine which has no real.....

it has no character at all....

....and the flavors get lost when you reduce them. A wine like Madeira which is already cooked during the process, allows you to maintain the flavor. We're slightly sort of suffering from people thinking of Madeira as just a cooking wine and they are actually talking about domestic Madeira. Whereas, true Madeira is a glorious wine.

I couldn't agree with you more.  Port and Madeira are probably two of the greatest wines in the world.

When we relaunched Madeira in the states, around 1987, there was only one restaurant I knew of that was serving Madeira. It was Masas in San Francisco. With their foie gras they gave you a choice of Château d'Yquem or an old vintage Madeira. Of course, Madeira has such a fabulous history with America: The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence were both toasted with Madeira. George Washington drank a pint of Madeira every day, Thomas Jefferson and Betsy Ross both enjoyed it.

The demise of Madeira was also caused by America when prohibition came along, 95% of Madeira was sold here. Overnight their market got taken away so they had to plant bananas and other crops. It wasn't until 1987 that it got re-launched in America. It's doing tremendously well, but there are some port houses that make over a million cases each of port. The total production of Madeira is only 100,000 cases. It's a very small production, but high quality.

Let's go backwards a bit and talk about your career, 'coming up through the ranks.' You talked about having a good time when you were in Australia. Share with us a story that people might find hard to believe or that you feel was funny. When you knew, "I'm going to do this."

One of the, sort of "moments" was actually before I went to Australia. I was staying at Chateau Latour in France with my parents and the director opened a bottle of 1865 Chateau Latour, and said, "This is the first and only time you'll ever taste this. Taste this."

The first and only....

....Well I've tasted it a few times since then.  I started writing notes, I always write notes on the great wines that I taste. That was a great moment.  In Australia it was very different. I was an 18-19 year old pasty Englishman, being sent out from winter in England arriving white as a sheet in Australia, going straight to a winery, where the Australians always have a love-hate relationship with the British. They gave me the most nasty jobs in the winery, basically the most dangerous jobs, that put me off wine-making. I was lugging pipes around and such. I earned a lot of money in a short period of time which enabled me to travel around Australia for the next four months (laughing), but it's certainly one of the moments.

Your father discouraged you from this. When did the point come when he made peace with your decision, that you were going to be okay with it.

I traveled around to Australian wineries with Marc Hugel, Alsace, his enthusiasm for wine rubbed off on me. I wrote my father saying that I was going to go into the wine business. He wrote back saying there was a job open in Harvey's Wine shop, why didn't I come back home and take that job.

He initially didn't want you to go into the wine business, but it sounds like he embraced it once you made your decision.

They always thought I should do whatever I wanted to do. I came home and did work in that wine shop for a year and ended up managing it. I suppose that was somewhat pleasing to him. But I was having too much of a good time in London (laughing). I think he saw that I wasn't taking anything too seriously so when I got offered the job in Canada he thought it was a very good idea that I leave. I think it was more really when I reached the states. When I got offered this job in America he said moving from Canada to America is a completely different thing. He said that Americans are incredibly intense about wine. Really seeing me flourish in America....

....that was my next question. Since you started up to today, there has been a huge change in the American wine palate. What's the biggest change that you've seen?

Recently I moved from San Francisco to Virginia. I moved my wine cellar and most of my collection of American wines were mostly wines from the 1980s (with some from the 70s). As I moved them, I looked at all the alcohol levels and all from Napa were 12.5 % a few were 13%, 13.5% and one 14% (which is outrageous). What I'm seeing today, a lot of wines in Napa today are 14.5 or higher. What made Napa famous were these lovely wines being produced in the 80s with 12-12.5% alcohol. The biggest change I've seen is the alcohol content, along with the fact that Americans are now consuming more wine and talking about wine. You can walk down the street and hear people talking about wine, whereas before it was a rare occasion to hear someone talking about it.

You mentioned two things that are almost diametrically opposed. One that America has developed a love of fine wine, or at least talking about wine, the other is Americans doing what Americans do, taking it to the excess.

I think so many people are new to wine, the last 10-15 years, they've been greatly influenced by a few wine writers who like the intense alcoholic wines, so people go straight to wines I describe as ketchup wines. Kind of like having food with ketchup on it. You mask the flavors by having something intense on the top of it.

I agree with you, I hadn't really thought of that. It used to be that I could work through a bottle of wine and feel good over the course of a 3 hour meal, but it wouldn't actually inebriate me.  But you can't do that now.

...next column... 

Absolutely.

Share with us why.

Because they have a commitment to wine that you don't get in corporations. One of the things we refuse to deal with is a middle man. That person is not representing the best interest of the winery or me.  When you deal directly with the family you have an integrity that will never go away. You are dealing with someone who is in it for the long haul. They have a real commitment to quality, it is the most important thing to them. It's not just the quality of the wine, to me, it is also the integrity of the people.

To that end, your reputation precedes you. Do you think that because of who you are and how you have conducted your business over the last 25 years and maintaining your integrity gives you easier access to these families?

That's a good question.  Our company started with wines from Portugal, I was known as Mr. Portugal. The wine from Lebanon came later, it's one I've always said is my favorite wine in the world. It has also helped that in the past 16 years the amount of importers has been dramatically reduced. There were 500 importers when I started in 1996, today there are about 100. We get inundated with offers from wineries, but we only represent about 18 wineries, once we found the very top producer in each region.  We turn down wineries based on a number of factors, and yes, maybe they are coming my way because of that.  I think in the beginning they trusted me more, and that's why they came. When I started my business I didn't have a single letter of credit. They extended credit to me without any sort of commitment, just that I am an honorable person, probably because of my background.

Gina (Gallo Wines) is trying to move towards a higher end wine, using the Sonoma label. What is your feeling about wineries of that size trying to branch out like that?

Gina is a lovely lady, married to a friend of mine. Their sense of scale is completely different than mine. For them to have a successful winery it's got to be of a certain size. Even if they're making higher quality wines you could never describe any of their wines as boutique.

We understand that.

Along with size comes a sacrifice on quality. The wineries we rep, with a couple of exceptions, are very small producers. The land has been in their family for generations and there is no new land around them to buy up. Their growth is restricted by their property holding.

Which determines that they MUST make a quality product.

Gallo can certainly make high quality wine. They have the sales force behind them. As soon as they make a high quality wine there will be a demand for it and production will increase. I don't see how they can ever make a small boutique winery. It basically takes 25 years to pay off and I don't think they have the patience to do that. They would want a quicker return. Eventually they'll make a high quality wine, the demand will increase, the production will increase and the quality will decrease. It is just the cycle of how it works.

As a wine consumer I would consider the wines that you represent as special, unique, boutique. I wouldn't say that you are dealing with a less expensive wine.

I think value for money for our wineries is exceptionally good.

No question, but it will be a bit more expensive than the 'average' bottle.

We don't sell $4.00 bottles but we do sell wines under $10.00, in the 8-9 dollar range. Our Vinho Verde is in the $9.00 range and when I first made it people asked why I would I do that instead of making a great Bordeaux or something? The fact is that it is the finest Vinho Verde on the market. Wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good.

We agree with that.

I doesn't cost more than $30.00 to make any wine in the world. I was horrified recently when I went into a store and saw Mondavi Reserve wine for $125.0 a bottle. That's shocking, when I remember in the 80s, when it was 12.5% alcohol and it was $30.00 a bottle and it was a fantastic wine. I think one of the worst things to happen to wine in America, apart from going up in alcohol, is the amount it has gone up in price. There are some wineries with just crazy prices.

I had that conversation with Bruce Cohn. He refused and has not changed his price point in 12 years.

That's good to hear. The problem is that is has attracted people from other industries, i.e. bankers, and they put out these wines with inflated prices. It's really those who do this as a lifetime career that are competing with these hobbyists putting out trophy wines. I find that extremely annoying, people that aren't wine people have an instant brand. It's disappointing.