As English Wine Week (yes, there is such a thing) approaches, wine writer Lisse Garnett discovers how some irreplaceably rare and age-worthy fine English wines are to be auctioned in name of one of the world’s most legendary sommeliers…
Frenchman Gérard Basset was the world’s most famous and least pretentious sommelier, beloved by customers and wine trade associates alike. He continues to attract the patronage of famed winos as illustrious as Jancis Robinson, who I saw salivating over numerous lots at the sale trade preview. Many of the wines donated for this June auction will simply never be available again; such is the power of a kindly mentor and people’s friend, even in death.
Basset achieved many impressive things during his lifetime but was a self-professed failure at school. Like many people who work in hospitality, Gérard’s early life was not as he would have liked it to be. He credited his wife, Nina, for giving him the love and support he needed to realise his potential. Mentorship of others became one of Gérard’s most lasting legacies; there is barely a single successful sommelier of a certain age who doesn’t have a tale to tell about Basset’s kindness.
Having set up Hotel du Vin with Robin Hutson, he saw many young sommeliers through their training. Hutson, his wife Judy, Nina and Basset pretty much invented the boutique hotel, ubiquitous today. And since Basset’s premature death, Nina and their son Romané have continued to mentor others through the Gérard Basset Foundation.
Young people, students, single mothers, foreign workers, and those escaping a difficult background will often be found working in hospitality. Many see it as a temporary fix, a stopgap until something better comes along. Only an enlightened few consider such hard graft as a career. In the UK, hospitality as a profession is not often given the respect it deserves, especially by government.
In the autobiography Basset wrote on learning of his terminal cancer, he recounts how his wife Nina was for him the magical pairing that made all things possible. Basset understood the power of mentorship. He understood that sometimes all it takes is someone else to believe in you to light the flame of success. That’s what his friends and family are doing at the foundation, reaching out, without judgement and enabling those of all nationalities and circumstances to succeed as he did by providing funded training and unique educational opportunities.
Gérard Basset was a consummate joker who had not represented himself well in school, his childhood home was not happy and playing the fool bought him the affection he craved. He was also a huge football fan, and his first trip to England in 1977 was to see his home team Saint-Etienne play Liverpool. Then twenty, he had heard terrifying tales of crazy English football hooligans, so he was amazed by the reception he received especially as he was covered in green face paint at the time (his team’s colour) and spoke no English.
“To my surprise, the locals were extremely friendly and came to see us. At that time, English football fans were often in the news because of hooliganism, but we didn’t see any. We were invited to drink tea, have biscuits and even sandwiches in more than one house and made extremely welcome. Liverpool FC won 3-1 and although I was a bit sad, I had a truly wonderful day and I’d seen one of the greatest European games I had ever witnessed”.
This was to be the first step in an astonishing career and a lifelong love of England. Basset returned to the UK the following year having landed a seasonal role in a restaurant kitchen on the Isle of Man. Later, he worked at the Chewton Glen Hotel where he met Robin Hutson, his wife Judy, and Nina. So began a deep friendship and business partnership that would culminate in the formation of the Hotel du Vin boutique hotel chain, which they later sold for a rumoured 66 million pounds. Basset went on to become the only person to ever pass the Master of Wine, the Master Sommelier exams and take the Bordeaux MBA in Wine Business.
“My efforts to serve other people,” Basset said, “to choose wines that would take their meal to another level, to make them comfortable and give them a night, or a holiday, that they would remember for the rest of their lives, repaid me many times over. I would do it all again.”
Raising money for The Gérard Basset Foundation, Whisky.Auction will host an English wine auction to coincide with English Wine Week. The auction will showcase lots generously donated by England’s most prestigious winemakers. All proceeds, including the buyer’s commission, will be donated to the Foundation.
Hundred Hills is a boutique, now world-famous, winery in Oxfordshire beloved by Nordics. They have donated their only signed box set of 2018 cuvées bar one (which the family is keeping). Likewise, Hambledon, England’s oldest commercial vineyard who are donating a magnum of their superb Premier Cuvee rosé. Balfour’s impossible-to-source magnums Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blanc, hailed from an original batch of only 500 back in 2018, are also going under the hammer. Ridgeview is offering a 2010 magnum of Blanc de Blanc. Chapel Down and Wiston have offered their sublime 2016s, and Exton Park two magnums from their exquisite 2014 production. Needless to say, this is an insane opportunity for collectors to get hold of bottles money can almost never buy, and for a brilliant cause.
The auction of these exceptional cuvées, as part of English Wine Week, is a fitting tribute to a sommelier who truly loved England, and always championed English wine – long before it was fashionable to do so.
The auction will take place at whisky.auction from 16 – 25 June 2024. 100% of proceeds will be donated to the Foundation. For a full list of wineries and the lots available, please visit the website.
Gerard Basset’s book, Tasting Victory is available here and 67 Pall Mall’s documentary, A Life in Wine: Gerard Basset | The World’s Favourite Sommelier may be found here. For more information about the Gerard Basset Foundation, please visit www.gerardbassetfoundation.org.
