COURT OF MASTER SOMMELIERS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Poland / Course Co - Ordinator and Exam Admissions
Job Titles:
- CFO
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Education Chair
Job Titles:
- Course Co - Ordinator
- Course Co - Ordinator and Exam Admissions
Gerard Basset, OBE, master sommelier, was born on March 7, 1957. He died of cancer on January 16, 2019, aged 61
Gerard Basset introduces Mathias Camilleri, head sommelier of Five Fields, who is Moët UK Sommelier of the Year 2017.
Most of all he is helping guide and influence the next generation of great sommeliers with his role as the head of the technical committee and Master of Ceremonies for the prestigious Best Sommelier in the World competition, run by the ASI (Association de la Sommellerie Internationale), which run events around the world which cover Europe, Asia, the Americas and the overall world event.
Nina Basset has shared these reflections on her husband: "Whilst we are devastated to have to say goodbye to Gerard for the last time, we draw strength from the kind messages that we have already received from the many people whose lives he touched. He fought a brave battle against cancer and we are comforted that he died at home surrounded by his family and that he is now at peace. Both Romané and I are profoundly grateful for the support we have received from our friends across the world, including the many in the wine and hospitality industries and to know that Gerard was so loved by all those who knew him."
When you consider the illustrious career of arguably one of the world's most influential sommeliers, then you would imagine it would be a romantic story about sipping wine in a famous French vineyard that sent Gerard Basset OBE, MW, MS, MBA, OIV MSc en route to the success he has subsequently had.
It was actually a cold, night in Liverpool on March 16, 1977 that was the inspiration for Basset to, at least, want to start a new life and career in the UK, rather than spend a life in hospitality or become a sommelier and hotelier.
It was the high-octane drama of seeing Liverpool come back from a seemingly impossible position to beat his beloved St Etienne, in one of most dramatic Quarter-Finals ever of the European Cup, that was to convince Basset that he wanted to make the UK his home.
A journey that eventually took him to the heart of the New Forest - many miles from Anfield and Liverpool - where he has firmly established himself as one of the country's leading hoteliers and restaurateurs. Initially with Hotel du Vin, which he founded in 1994 in Winchester with his former colleague and managing director, Robin Huston, from Chewton Glen, where Basset had been head sommelier. Together they helped create a new style of boutique hotel, and were able to build up to a six-strong group before selling on to Malmaison in 2004.
It was then when he and his wife, Nina, were able to do their own thing with the award-winning Hotel TerraVina that they have run for the last decade. Today actually marks the hotel's 10-year anniversary and whilst he is proud of what they have achieved to date, he believes the hotel's best years lie ahead. "We still have many plans for what we can do here," he says. "The next few years are going to important years for us and we have some plans to develop TerraVina. It's time. It's been 10 years so you need to make some changes, tweak the product and offering a little and have a bit of revamp."
It was a pleasure to catch up with Basset, sitting on the beautifully appointed wooden terrace that sits looking down on the quiet TerraVina gardens. A spot more in keeping with an old colonial townhouse and typical of all the subtle design touches that make TerraVina such a unique, relaxed and memorable location.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Over the course of four decades, Gerard "The Nose" Basset, as he came to be known, notched up a medley of wine qualifications. He was the only person to hold the Master of Wine qualification with the Master Sommelier, MBA Wine Business and MSc from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, as well as winning the World Sommelier Championship in 2010. His love of wine was so all-consuming it even dictated the name of his much-loved dog, Merlot. His son was named Romané after the Burgundian house.
With Basset's neat black hair, clipped moustache and twinkling eyes, came his insistence that the chief quality of a sommelier was not knowledge and enthusiasm, but humility. The wine critic Jancis Robinson once described him as "the most gifted sommelier I have ever come across, in terms of both his knowledge and how he handles customers".
In the 1990s Basset set up Hotel du Vin, which offered affordable French dining to market towns. His first hotel in Winchester shot to unexpected attention in 1995 during the month-long trial of Rosemary West, the serial killer, at Winchester Crown Court. Dozens of lawyers and journalists stayed and ate at the hotel, booking it out solidly. "The journalists who came told their friends about us, and reviews began coming in that were very positive," Basset said. "We were completely full even months afterwards." The hotel, which opened in half a dozen more spots, was one of the pioneers of the "boutique" movement with its offer of affordable luxury. "You couldn't have your shoes cleaned and we wouldn't park your car, but you would find a comfortable bed and wonderful food."
Becoming a master of wine was the result of years of dedication. "The tests are gruelling, involving long questionnaires, blind tastings and on-the-spot exercises. Once you win, you can never enter again." He believed wine tasting needed constant practice and judged several big shows a year. For one, the judges had to try 2,500 wines blind in three days, which meant tasting 100 to 150 wines a day. He trained like an athlete, eating carefully and sleeping as much as he could. He even spent time training himself mentally by working with a sports psychologist.
He was a fan of wines from Burgundy, Madeira and the Napa Valley and advocated lobster salad and champagne. However, he said his personal cellar was relatively small, with about 700 bottles. "If somebody said to me I could only have one more glass of wine, it would be a very old Madeira, perhaps from 1811 or 1822, both of which I have tasted." He joked that the problem was that since many of the bottles were expensive he rarely had the right bottle in the house to share with a friend on a Sunday night.
Gerard Francis Claude Basset was born in Saint-Étienne, "not the most exciting town", he said, in 1957. His father, Pierre René, was a draughtsman and his mother, Marguerite Marie-Louise, a midwife. She cooked homely dishes, jams and pastries, and her blackcurrant liquor, made from garden fruit, stuck in his mind.
After leaving school he trained as a chef. While working at a Michelin-starred restaurant in France, he realised he disliked the job. "There was always shouting," he said. Instead, he moved to England. Speaking English with a strong French accent, his job searches were not always easy. In one interview, failing to understand what was implied by the question: "Do you have any criminal convictions?", he wrote down, "Too difficult to explain."
By 1988 he had a job as sommelier at Chewton Glen, a country house hotel in Hampshire. Here, he met his future wife, Nina, and they had soon moved in together. "It was two weeks," she said. They had one son, now in his second year at King's College London studying French and English literature.
Basset became friends with Robin Hutson, the manager, who suggested that they set up a hotel together. While they were opening the first Hotel du Vin, Nina was driven to distraction by Basset disappearing constantly when needed. Invariably he was found in the cellar with Hutson, discussing the merits of his latest oenological find. Basset insisted that their hotel was a place without snobbery. "If you wanted to have Coca-Cola, frankly we didn't care. We didn't want to scare people."
He recalled the steep learning curve that followed. "It was the first time I heard words like ‘P & L', ‘balance sheet'; all these things." The business was helped by investment from Anita and Gordon Roddick, the founders of the Body Shop, and they opened six hotels. They then sold to MWB in 2004 for £66 million, which earned Basset £2.5 million after tax. As he said, it was "enough for us to feel comfortable, but not so much that we could ever think about not working again".
He took an MBA in wine and spirits at Bordeaux. However, he soon missed working and in 2007 he and his wife set up TerraVina, a new hotel and restaurant, in the New Forest. "You can see the wild ponies," he said. The cellar was disused and full of mousetraps.
While Hotel du Vin's restaurant was French bistro, this one would be different. As he put it: "This time we were inspired by the Napa Valley, simple but good food, a pizza oven." Business was adversely affected by the 2008 economic crash, but he kept making a small profit. He gave classes on sabrage, the art of opening a bottle of champagne with a sabre, a skill associated with Napoleon's officers.
While his wife handled the daily affairs, he created the wine and food menu and worked on other projects. He toured the world for five months of the year visiting wineries, meeting producers and giving talks on wine, especially in China. "[China] is extremely interesting for wine. A small percentage of people with a lot of money are interested in art, luxury and wines."
At TerraVina he would love to be behind the bar polishing glasses. From there he had a vantage point over the restaurant and could speak to guests at the same time.
He said recently he was ready for a new challenge. "I don't know what it is yet," he said. "I want to do something else that involves wine, but there's still a piece missing so I can't see the whole puzzle."
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