Peter J. Morrell
Chairman & Wine Advisor

Peter Morrell first came to international attention in the wine world in 1970, when he acquired, at Chrisite's auction in London, a double magnum of 1865 Château Lafite Rothschild for $528 - - then the highest price ever paid for a bottle of wine. Some years later, an identical bottle sold for $28,000, solidifying Peter's reputation as a man who knows his wines. Today, Mr. Morrell is Chairman & Wine Advisor to Morrell & Company, one of America's most prominent wine merchants.

Mr. Morrell is the second generation of his family in the wine trade. He began his wine education and apprenticeship in 1963, at the age of 19, by studying and working in the vineyards and cellars of Germany and France. In 1970, Mr. Morrell and a French associate arranged for the acquisition of a vineyard and Château in the Bordeaux district of the Haut-Medoc. Also in 1970 Mr. Morrell launched The Academy of Wine, a school for would-be oenophiles.

In 1972, Mr. Morrell became CEO and President of Morrell & Company and introduced a new approach to the merchandising of wine at retail by publishing two 56-page wine lists, Fall Wine Preview and The Great Wine Grapes and The Wines They Make, containing his personal evaluations of thousands of wines, both American and imported. Now published quarterly, The Morrell & Company Catalogues are also supplemented with a Holiday issue. In 1984, Mr. Morrell was among the small group of independents awarded the "Superstar Retail Entrepreneur Leader Award" by Market Watch Magazine. He has been included on the annual list every year since.

In the spring of 1994, Mr. Morrell made wine history when Morrell & Company successfully conducted the first commercial fine wine auction of privately owned wines ever to be held in New York State. Since then Morrell & Company Fine Wine Auctions has held a total of 20 Fine Wine Auctions, with five auctions scheduled for the 1999-2000 season.

Mr. Morrell has acted as an official wine judge in Bordeaux, Melbourne and Montreal and has been invited by numerous foreign government and domestic wine organizations to speak at wine industry events. In addition, he has appeared on numerous wine judging panels in the US. In 1986 the French government awarded Mr. Morrell The Merite Agricole and the Italian government presented him with an award for his service to the Italian wine industry. Mr. Morrell has been a longtime member of many international wine societies including The Society of Wine Educators, The Wine & Food Society of New York, La Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, La Chaine des Rotisseurs, La Jurade de St. Emilion, Les Compagnons de Beaujolais, Les Gentilhommes de Fronsac, and La Commanderie de Bordeaux; he was, for many years, the Grand Commander for the New York Brotherhood of the Knights of the Vine, the all American wine fraternity.

In addition to his chairmanship of Morrell & Company in Manhattan, Mr. Morrell is recognized within the wine trade as an international wine authority and prominent industry spokesman. He has been the host of a live radio talk show on WABC and has appeared often on television news and talk shows both locally and nationally on CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC, as well as the Television Food Network. He frequently lectures and has contributed articles on wine to numerous publications. For nearly a decade he was the wine columnist for Playbill.