Having been educated in Rugby School and the London School of Economics, Spurrier entered the wine trade in 1964 as a trainee with London’s oldest wine merchant Christopher and Co. In 1970 he moved to Paris where he persuaded an elderly lady to sell him her small wine store located in a passageway off the
rue Royale. From 1971 he ran the wine shop
Les Caves de la Madeleine where clients were encouraged to taste wines before they bought them, which achieved recognition as a highly regarded specialist wine shop. In 1973 he started
L’Academie du Vin, France’s first private wine school, which was central to the wine education of several wine personalities such as French wine writer Michel Bettane, and Charles F. Shaw namesake of "Two Buck Chuck".
Spurrier went on to stage the influential "Judgement of Paris" Tasting of 1976, when a Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from California were ranked above some of the most prestigious wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux.
Spurrier sold off his wine interests in France and returned to the UK in 1988, becoming a wine consultant and journalist. He is now
- director of The Christie’s Wine Course, which he founded with Christie's Education in 1982,
- wine consultant to Singapore Airlines, and
- consultant editor to Decanter, to which he is a monthly contributor.