Edmund Penning-Rowsell

Edmund Lionel Penning-Rowsell (1913–2002) was a British journalist considered the doyen of Britain's writers on wine, and possibly the world's longest-serving wine correspondent.

Biography Rowsell came from an upper middle class London family. Canon Thomas Rowsell was his second great uncle by blood and the architect Sir Charles Barry was his second great uncle through marriage. During the Depression years, his father's printing business went bankrupt, his education at Marlborough was cut short. Aided by those in the trade he gradually built up his knowledge and wine came to dominate his life.

Michael Broadbent noted that Penning-Rowsell had one of the best private wine collections in England. Working with Broadbent, he became an adviser on wine to auctioneers Christie's, and regularly reported on wine auction results.

Penning-Rowsell was awarded by the French government the Ordre National du Mérite Agricole in 1971 and the Ordre du Mérite National in 1981. He was known for using the phrase, "Speaking as a man of the Left...".