The opening meeting of the Club’s 2017-18 season was a rare treat. Gerard Basset, the much-lauded sommelier and hotelier, presented ‘some out-of-the ordinary wines’ and discoursed on the ‘Role of the Sommelier’. And what better guide to the evolution and intricacies of the sommelier’s skills could there be?
Starting as a kitchen porter, Gerard worked his way up through waiting and serving as a chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant before becoming fascinated with the then little-regarded role of the sommelier. After working at Chewton Glen (the pioneering wine and food hotel on the South coast), he became co-founder and wine partner in the Hotel du Vin group of boutique hotels, which revolutionised the British hotel industry. He now runs the very highly regarded Terra Vina in Hampshire with his wife Nina (who was unfortunately unable to join us for the tasting). At the Hotel du Vin, at Terra Vina and as mentor and judge to succeeding generations of sommeliers he has done more than anyone to raise the status and skill levels of the profession.
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