Robin Blackburne, a world-renowned wine connoisseur, inventor and tennis lover, has died at age 86.

Mr Blackburne’s name was synonymous with wine in Bermuda, after he came to the island in 1962 to lead Bristol Cellars, a drinks firm.

He arrived in Bermuda after he spotted a magazine advertisement for the start-up wine company on the island while working in London. He remained with Bristol Cellars as chief executive for 25 years, then founded Balmoral Wine Shippers, which distributed champagnes and other wines from France and New Zealand to the United States.

The father of two later ran Blackburne Wine Consulting in Hamilton.

Mr Blackburne, who traced his love affair with wine to a summer holiday in Spain as a teenager, held the title of Master of Wine, a distinction he earned in 1959.

His family said he was the youngest to obtain the qualification.

He studied oenology, the science of winemaking, at Bordeaux University in France, and became familiar with the top vineyards of Europe and worked at the London Wine Trade for ten years.

A polymath with a love of poetry, Mr Blackburne had two bestselling inventions to his name — the ViniCool wine cooler and the Blackburne DS107 tennis racket.

He also designed a search engine for wines. He said in 2004 he was “an ideas man, an inventor and solution finder”.

Mr Blackburne hit upon the idea in 2002 after he was frustrated in an internet search for the double-strung tennis racket he designed in 1973.

A keen athlete, he introduced waterskiing to Britain when it was a little-known sport, and came up with his own ski design for the slopes.

Born in Bramhope, a village in West Yorkshire, Mr Blackburne started in the wine business in 1953 at the London wine suppliers Saccone and Speed, which sent him to France for training.

Ten years later, he came to Bermuda on a whim after he broke up with a girlfriend.

He said: “My father, a chartered accountant said, ‘Don’t even think about taking this job in Bermuda’.”

He built Bristol Cellars into a top supplier of wines to the island’s hotels and restaurants, and counted red Burgundy as his favourite. Mr Blackburne considered himself an ambassador for wine and told The Royal Gazette in 2017: “I worked tirelessly to try to convert Bermuda drinkers from their rum and ginger beer to the occasional glass of wine as an aperitif — and then to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner several nights of the week.”

Mr Blackburne’s expertise often took him overseas, including for lectures and judging at wine competitions and he was in high demand as a wine consultant.

He met his Dutch wife, Joy, on a skiing trip in Austria, and the couple married in 1967. They had two daughters, Amanda Temple and Sacha Adamson.

Ms Temple said their endlessly inquisitive father had gifted them with a “mad scientist” childhood, constantly tinkering with inventions.

She added: “He was a very clever person with an amazing life — we had very deep, erudite conversations in adulthood about politics, history and the environment that were just as magical as what we had in childhood.”

Ms Adamson said her father had been an “adventurer” at heart and was “always coming up with improvements for things”.

She said: “I think he was a frustrated scientist at heart. He was interested in so many things — he even had ideas for perpetual motion. He had no boundaries.

“He was positive, full of joie de vivre — he felt that you must find joy and do what you love. He was very supportive, not just to his kids, but to everybody.”

Robin Michael Blackburne, wine connoisseur, was born on August 28, 1933. He died on July 31, 2020, aged 86.