Didier Dagueneau

I read this morning that Didier Dagueneau was killed in a microlite accident in France yesterday. Tragically he was only 52. You can read more about him on Decanter or Jancis Robinson's site.

As a wine student at Lincoln University I really enjoyed watching the Jancis Robinson Wine Course videos. People like Dagueneau, with his 'Wild Man of the Loire' tag, were tremendously inspirational. We loved the individual character and the seemingly obsessive and traditional nature of his viticulture and winemaking. This seemed to capture the essence of why we wanted to get into the industry. No student aspires to join Gallo, Pernod-Ricard or the like but the stories and individual characters of (mostly) European winemakers really got us enthused. Among the other individuals we looked toward also included Henri Jayer and Georg Breuer and they have also sadly passed away relatively recently.