Oz Clarke

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Oz Clarke
Born 1949
Occupation Actor and wine writer
Nationality British

Oz Clarke (1949 - ) is a British wine writer and broadcaster.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Oz Clarke was educated at a famous independent school, The King's School, Canterbury, and later attended Pembroke College, Oxford where he co-founded the wine-tasting team.

He now lives in West London.

[edit] Acting career

Clarke started life as a full time actor and singer working for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, The Old Vic and Chichester. In the West End, he played all the men in the Mitford Girls, Sweeney Todd and Peron in Evita.

He played Hood #4 in the 1978 film Superman, a Special Branch man in Who Dares Wins, and Balthasar in Stuart Burge's 1984 film of Much Ado About Nothing.

[edit] Wine career

In 1984 he became a full time writer. He joined the Sunday Express, where Lynn Barber was his ghost writer.[1] He then became wine correspondent of The Daily Telegraph.

In 1985, Clarke won the last World Wine Tasting Championship, making him reigning champion.[2]

He has also written many award-winning books (see below), but to the general public he is perhaps best known for his partnership with Jilly Goolden as the wine experts on the BBC2 Food and Drink programme.

More recently he appeared on Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure with James May and can be heard on BBC Radio 4 The Wine Programme with Andrew Jefford.

[edit] Selected bibliography

  • The Essential Wine Book (1988)
  • Oz Clarke's Wine Guide (formerly Webster's Wine Guide) - annually since the late 1980s, now also on CD-ROM
  • Oz Clarke's Pocket Wine Book (annually since 1997)
  • Oz Clarke's New Classic Wines
  • Oz Clarke's Australian Wine Companion (2004)
  • Oz Clarke's Encyclopedia of Wine (2003)
  • Oz Clarke's Wine Atlas
  • Oz Clarke's Grapes and Wines: A Guide to Varieties and Flavours (2003) by Oz Clarke & Margaret Rand
  • Sainsbury's Regional Wine Guides and Sainsbury's Pocket Book of Wine
  • Oz Clarke's Wine Companion to... - Bordeaux, Tuscany, Burgundy, California
  • Microsoft Wine Guide (CD-ROM)

[edit] Awards

  • Wine Magazine Book of the Year
  • Wine Guild of the United Kingdom Wine Writer
  • Glenfiddich Drink Award 1992
  • Andre Simon Drink Book Award
  • Julia Child Cookbook Award
  • Lanson Wine Book of the Year 2002
  • Special Millennium Award, Le Prix du Champagne Lanson

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Barber, Lynn 'Would you like claret?' No, I said, just some wine Observer 12th June 2005
  2. ^ BBC - Food - TV and Radio - Episode Guide. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on November, 2007.