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Jean-Marc Quarin was born in 1955 in the Châteauneuf du pape appellation. His grandparents
were winegrowers, in Italy on his father's side and in the Languedoc-Roussillon region
on his mother's side.
As a teenager, Jean-Marc spent all his holidays next to Carcassonne (Corbières region),
where he picked his first grapes. After high school, he decided to become a special
education teacher. His parents moved to Arcachon and he studied at the University
of Bordeaux.
After graduation, at the age of 25, Jean-Marc Quarin decided to take advantage of
being in one of the world's finest wine regions to take his first wine appreciation
course. "I wanted to see if I would continue to value the wines my family
had taught me to like even after training my palate".
In 1984-1985, he took a course at the Faculty of Oenology "to learn about taste
defects in wine" and obtained a degree in wine tasting with distinction. He also
received practical winemaking experience at Domaine de Chevalier in Léognan during
the 1985 vintage. While at this famous estate, he became familiar with the leading
dry white Bordeaux at the time and learned from Claude Ricard, a great partisan
of balance and tannic elegance in red wines. Jean-Marc took part in the tasting
to constitute the final blend of the 1984 vintage with Emile Peynaud. "I
remember that Peynaud recommended fining twice to smooth out the rough
edges of this wine totally dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. It went on to become
one of the finest 1984s in all Bordeaux".
In 1989, Jean-Marc Quarin received his degree in education science,
which involved writing a dissertation on teaching people how to taste.He then decided
to create Bordeaux Quintessence.
“Bordeaux Quintessence represents the period which enabled me to identify the
enormous wealth of taste of Bordeaux wines. I became able to identify the specific
tastes which come from this region and understand what differentiates one Bordeaux
wine from another, and then what their differences are compared with other French
wines and those from other countries wine critic when I stopped Bordeaux
Quintessence in 1998 in order to set up the Carnets de Dégustations, an independent
guide for the discerning wine lover, of which I am both the writer and the editor".
One of Jean-Marc's major strong points is the fact that he is based in Bordeaux.
This enables him to follow the situation there closely, taste the new wines when
they are very young, anticipate on their quality, and discover the most talented
winegrowers. Indeed, "a wine's potential depends on what happens in the vineyard".
For instance, barely one month after the harvest of vintage 2000, Jean-Marc Quarin
published an article announcing the excellence of the vintage, even indicating Château
Margaux and Cheval Blanc as the imminent stars. He did not mistake the strong tannins
of 1994 for those of a great vintage. In 1995, he hailed the vintage in spite of
the rains in September. He realised very early the exceptional quality of the Cabernet
Sauvignon in the Médoc in 1996 while in 1998, he was the first to point out the
outstanding level of the Pomerols.
In 98, the press recognised him as a gifted taster and writer, comparing him to
the most famous in his field.
To help consumers find their way in the world of wine, Jean-Marc Quarin shares his
tasting notes and his observations through his publications and training courses,
as well as through the many conferences he is invited to world-wide. He also set
up an organisation which offers customised wine tours. "As a matter of fact, says
Jean-Marc Quarin, I use the values my first work taught me, such as humanity,
sensitivity and good teaching methods, to explain in a simple manner about
wine and its world, its taste and its subtleties."
Today, in 2007, Jean-Marc Quarin has written over 2 800 pages about Bordeaux wines
and his unique data base contains more than 23 000 tasting comments.
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