John Stewart Hutton was born on June 28 1951 at Hanley Castle in Worcestershire, to Major John Murray Hutton of the King\u2019s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and his wife Elsie, n\u00e9e Jewell. Major Hutton was an MCC cricketer, Harlequins rugby player and scratch golfer, sparking lifelong sporting enthusiasms in his son.<\/p>\n
Educated at St Edward\u2019s School, Oxford, John embarked on a banking career until he was ejected as \u201cunsuitable\u201d; he also had a short foray as a restaurateur before seeking an entr\u00e9e into the world of wine. Warned by one veteran that the trade offered \u201ca fun life\u201d but not much financial security, Hutton\u2019s oft-quoted reply was: \u201cI\u2019d rather be a lead guitarist in an R&B band, but wine was second on the list, so here I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
A hero-worshipper of Eric Clapton, Hutton did indeed play the guitar all his life, having started out in a casual 1970s band which rejoiced in the name of The Wonderful Mission of Earl Lavender. But by the end of that decade he had found a job with Hedges & Butler and in 1983 he moved to another wine merchant, Fields, which was acquired by Berry Bros & Rudd in 1997 and integrated with other smaller firms.<\/p>\n
Hutton oversaw the development of Fields, Morris & Verdin as a leading wine agency, supplying a range of outlets that extended to some of London\u2019s finest Japanese and Chinese restaurants as well as the empire of Corbin and King.<\/p>\n
A man of infectious, self-deprecating cheerfulness, he was a mentor and friend to many younger members of the wine trade. Celebrated in his anecdotal repertoire was the story of his discovery of a promising Australian winery called Pedare. Did the name perhaps suggest Italian antecedents, he enquired. \u201cNah, mate,\u201d came the reply, \u201cThe owners are Pete, Dave and Reg.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hutton could talk all day and night about music, sport and comedy as well as wine, and was happiest at home in Herefordshire with his wife and their many Labradors. He married Sarah Jane Hepworth, who was banqueting manager at the Grocers\u2019 Hall in the City of London, in 2002; she survives him with their three sons. To his grandsons, he was known affectionately as \u201cGrandpa Bottles\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u200bJohn Hutton, born June 28 1951, died April 7 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Stewart Hutton was born on June 28 1951 at Hanley Castle in Worcestershire, to Major John Murray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1052,27,1050,627,330,4915],"class_list":{"0":"post-23730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-culture-obituaries","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-obituaries","11":"tag-restaurants","12":"tag-standard","13":"tag-wine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116480649614861847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}