Wine Book Review - Tasting Victory'

‘Tasting Victory – The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier’ by Gerard Basset

Published by Academie du Vin Library, 2026

Sadly, I never met Gerard Basset. I read a lot about him, used to stay (eat and drink) in his Hotel du Vin and followed him as he won all the top international sommelier contests. He was a UK wine tasting superstar, (all be it that he was French), as you can see from the tributes written in his book by Jancis Robinson, Raymond Blanc and more. The list of his crowdfunding supporters reads like a Who’s Who of the wine trade.

And then, tragically, he died of cancer in 2019, way too young.

This book is his story, his epitaph and his legacy.

It’s not a book about wine, and there is not a single tasting note in it. It’s the autobiography of a man who I think genuinely merits the adjective ‘remarkable’, and his life from humble beginnings in Saint Etienne to the sommelier who stood astride the top of the world and draped himself in a Union Jack.

His family was dysfunctional, a loveless parental marriage, endless arguments, violence and an oddly strict upbringing, no television, no holidays abroad, no interest in the child’s education. As such, Gerard Basset emerged with few academic qualifications and drifted through a series of odd jobs. It was his love of football that first brought him to Liverpool to watch a match and he fell in love with the country despite his former caricatural French prejudice that England was a culinary desert of tea, warm beer and awful food enjoyed under endless rain.

By pure happenstance he secured a job as a commis chef at The Crown in the New Forest despite his total lack of experience and faltering command of English. His career in hospitality was launched. He went to eat at the legendary Paul Bocuse with its 3 Michelin stars, gained a government training grant and again by luck came upon a sponsored French sommelier contest where he managed to get to the final round.

And this was the eureka moment, something that fitted his obviously charming, warm personality (the hospitality trade) with his strongly determined competitive streak (sommelier competitions). He had a target and a vision – to become a Master Sommelier, Master of Wine, the UK, Europe and then the World’s best sommelier.

At Chewton Glen, a boutique hotel with a Michelin starred restaurant, he soon rose to head sommelier and gained the support and opportunity to taste, learn and compete. He served the ex-prime minister of the UK and that of France.  But what really comes through is the crazy amount of determination, single minded dedication, time and money required to memorise all the technical theory and prepare for the blind tastings. Literally hundreds of bottles of wine bought, wrapped in newspaper for anonymity, and tasted – analysed, scrutinised and identified. And then, somehow, committed to memory.

A truly titanic task.

If the early 1990’s was all about competitive success, he then stopped and decided to start a hotel career and opened the Hotel du Vin in Winchester in 2004, its first days macabrely assisted by the gruesome murder trial being heard at the court next door. Journalists need to eat (& drink), and a bed to sleep in. Despite initial service hiccups and his heroically supportive partner Nina once having to accost a bunch of rowdy young male guests in her pyjamas at three in the morning to tell them to quieten down, they had soon opened new hotels in Tunbridge Wells, Birmingham and Harrogate.

But founding a rapidly growing and successful hotel group was not enough. In between times he’d focussed on becoming a Master of Wine, (Master Sommelier being already done), the ultimate accolade for any wine expert, and the most difficult. He failed the technical exams twice but passed in 1998 and by then had already sailed through the tasting exam and won the Bollinger prize for best taster.

And even with the mad work schedule, that competitive streak resurfaced, so that with the English and European best sommelier title in his pocket by 1996, (along with a UK Passport as he competed for England), he decided again to aim for the sky with the Best Sommelier in the World in Montreal 2000, but with inadequate time for preparation he messed up the service part so though he started as favourite, he failed to get to the final round.

And in his spare time, as a man who’d never used a computer and wrote all his theory papers and work longhand, he mastered Qwertyuiop to write a book. And along the way married Nina and they produced a son called Romane (after Vosne-Romanee, the world’s most exclusive wine village).

He set up a wine school in Birmingham, held endless wine dinners and focussed on training for barmen and sommeliers. Indeed, the list of his proteges now also looks like a Who’s Who.

For the Best Sommelier in the World competition in 2004 he recited mental tasting notes for months whilst walking the dog, and studied books on psychology, mental preparation and memory improvement. To give you an idea of just how much fun the examinations are, for the wine service test they spiked a bottle with TCA (cork taint) but to make it more fun, the bottle closure was not cork, but plastic (which in theory should not carry any cork taint). Nice. He, of course, spotted it.

By 2004 they sold the Hotel du Vin Group, and he was amazed to find £2.5m in their bank account, so I suspect that despite the modesty and lack of formal education, he was a pretty canny businessman too.

In 2006/7 he completed the KEDGE business school wine MBA and then decided to start over again by creating the Hotel TerraVina, with a California vibe, though it took 4 head chefs and endless legal battles with the builders to get it right.

But just when you wonder how much higher he could go, he plunged, a descent that is very honestly told. He admits that he took the eye of the ball, and lacked a vision for growth, which ended up with him trying to sell, failing, and then entering into a disastrous merger with a restaurant group who seem to have hidden their tax problems and debt, ending up in liquidation, yet more acrimonious court cases and the firing of his incompetent lawyers. Ugly.

If that were not enough, along came Brexit in 2016, putting a severe damper on trade, such that by 2017 he and Nina stopped taking even modest remuneration.

Along the way in 2007 he’d again competed in the World Sommelier, but came second for the third time, coming back for one last attempt in 2010 when he won in Chile.  Nor was this all, he was voted Decanter Magazine Man of the Year in 2013, awarded the OBE, became a Master of Science in Wine Management, was granted the freedom of the City of London, the Chevalier de l’ordre du mérite agricole, and won the ASI and IWC lifetime awards. It’s an utterly extraordinary list of achievements and accolades. And yet nowhere do you read a hint of smugness or arrogance, just a sort of surprised smile and ‘I would do it all again’. And that love of what he was doing and the people with whom he was doing it.

Sadly, the ending was too short and too awful. They decided to close TerraVina to restructure and reimagine it as Spot in the Woods, not on a wine theme with a good restaurant and world class sommelier, but a bed and breakfast with a lifestyle shop and deli but no restaurant. If that was not hard enough, he was diagnosed with cancer of the œsophagus. Which despite chemotherapy and an operation, quickly resurfaced, when he was told that he had less than year to live.

But this is not a depressing book. It’s sad in the end yes of course, but at the same time uplifting and quite inspiring. Gerard Basset was a man of avowedly humble and difficult origins, but one of humility yet enormous drive, determination, focus and talent. But also, one who was obviously extremely nice. And his story shows just how far you can go if you want to and have the belief, energy and drive, whilst still retaining your modesty and charm. I so wish he’d been pouring the wine in Winchester where I stayed a few times. He reminds us of life’s second chances. He was a fighter, always bouncing back from any disappointments.

The writing style is simple, friendly and honest and of course the tragic end is both moving and quite uplifting in the way that his wife, son and very numerous friends and supporters have carried on his work by creating a charity foundation to fund education and training initiatives for disadvantaged individuals in the drinks and hospitality world.

There are so many false heroes, self-appointed experts and large egos in the modern social media world of wine. Gerard Basset was the real thing, and I suspect you’d struggle to find a nicer example. This is his story. It’s well worth the read.

Postscript - ‘The Wine in My Glass’

‘Loving this wine memoir from Adrian Latimer. A must for those who love great stories and writing, albeit primarily about wine. And it’s all in a good cause. All profits go to the Vendanges Solidaires association which helps winemakers who are suffering due to extreme weather conditions…’

Hermione Ireland, Managing Director Academie du Vin Library

‘Refreshing candor bereft of rancor is the hallmark of The Wine in My Glass, written by an enthusiast with no connection to the wine trade other than as a committed customer over many decades…. Hardly a page passes without a crisp insight that reveals the sort of deep understanding that is only achieved after years of alert engagement… Burgundy warrants several chapters, but the one that should be compulsory reading—“A Pox Upon You”—tells an unflattering tale about the blight of premature oxidation and its baleful and ongoing consequences… Keen observations such as this leaven every chapter of The Wine in My Glass. We need more wine writing of this ilk: engaging and enthusiastic first, informed and knowledgeable second—the sort of book that should be read with a glass of wine to hand rather than a highlighter pen.’

Raymond Blake ‘The World of Fine Wine’

After some encouragement and a fair few blog posts, I published (Sept 2025) a book about my travels in the wine world - the people, places and, of course, wines.  I am not a professional, so everything I say is objective and unbiased (so I can criticise when other journalists do not dare to do so for instance) and any profits will go to the Vendanges Solidaires association which was set up in 2016 to help winemakers who are in trouble after suffering the extreme weather conditions (frost, hail, fire, flood etc) which sadly are becoming ever more frequent: www.vendangessolidaires.com.

The book ranges from California to Sicily, via Salta, Jujuy and Patagonia in Argentina, Valtellina, Piemonte and Tuscany in Italy, Madeira and of course all over France (Burgundy, Chablis, Sancerre, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, the Rhone).

If you have found any pleasure and/or interest in this blog, I think you might enjoy it, especially as it has been brilliantly illustrated by Arabella Langlands-Perry who managed to juggle bringing up two young kids, helping run Maceo/Willi’s Wine Bar in Paris and producing artwork with an abundance of both talent and wit. Brava.

‘The Wine in My Glass – Tales of Wines, Winemakers and Places’

Published by The Medlar Press Limited, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, autumn 2025. www.medlarpress.com       

https://medlarpress.com/bookstore/?store-page=The-Wine-in-My-Glass-p768838784

Available from Medlar in UK, and/or from me in France or Willis Wine Bar in Paris.

Price UK Pounds 26 from Medlar or 35 Euros. All profits to charity.

Arabella’s artwork is available from Restaurant Maceo/Willis Wine Bar in Paris.