Creating a generous and hospitable legacy. 

You know I love sharing the profiles and stories of women making waves in the wine industry, sharing the powerful roles they play all too often behind the scenes. Let me introduce you to one woman who has stepped into the limelight to help others step into the wine business.  

Nina Basset FIH, is a Co-Founding Trustee of The Gerard Basset Foundation. She knows all about hospitality, as co-founder of Hotel du Vin, Hotel TerraVina and Spot in the Woods with her late husband, the much loved and sorely missed Gérard Basset OBE. Wine is an important part of her vision of hospitality, how it could not be with Gérard sharing his passion across the vineyards of the world, a passion also inherited by their son, Romané. 

Nina is an example to follow, at just 21 she was the youngest ever AA Hotel and Restaurant Inspector, the winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award for Women in Business before she hit 40, other accolades include a Vice President of the United Kingdom Sommelier Academy in 2020, and in November 2022 General Secretary of the ASI, until the Summer of 2023. 

After Gerard’s death in 2019, Nina was bowled over by stories of how, and how many people his life had impacted, something brought home even more sharply at his memorial service in Winchester attended by over 1000 people. Gérard mentored and trained a generation of young sommeliers helping them launch their own careers.

Nina wasn’t going to carry on the hotel without him, but she did want to continue this legacy of helping and mentoring young people in the industry. This lead to the Gerard Basset Foundation, co-founded in 2021 by Nina and Romané, who also serve as trustees alongside Jancis Robinson OBE MW and Ian Harris. It is now the world’s leading charitable foundation dedicated to using the wine, spirits and hospitality industries as a vehicle for change, helping newcomers from all backgrounds enter the world of wine. 

Why an agent for change? 

Wine can seem like an exclusive club, difficult to enter and hard to understand, for consumers but even more importantly for people considering a career. Even for people bitten by the wine bug, looking from the outside in, it can seem inaccessible and daunting with insurmountable barriers to entry. Now, thanks to generous players on the inside, the Foundation helps knock down these barriers, opening up the fabulous world of wine to aspiring somms, wait staff, tasters, educators, buyers and many more.

Changing lives, changing image

It’s not uniquely altruistic. The industry needs younger, more diverse people to make it more attractive and accessible to a broader audience. Never has this been more important than right now, with so many young people turning away from wine, feeling it’s not for them. The industry needs to be inclusive, to look like the people we are trying to attract and seduce. Cultural differences within the business bring so much more, as well as different experiences and viewpoints, they bring much needed fun to the industry and communicate it to others.  

From passion to profession

The hospitality industry is often seen as a stop gap, a part time job, rarely a career. Yet, careers advice so often encourages young people to follow their passion. How can you upgrade wine from a hobby to a profession? 

Wine education, opening the doors of the industry 

Nina’s advice is to gather as many qualifications as you can, from WSET (Wine and Spirits Education trust), to MS (Master Sommelier), MW (Master of Wine), WSG (Wine scholar Guild) they all offer complimentary qualifications that both open the doors to newcomers and enhance existing careers in the wine, spirits and hospitality industries. Nina should know, the Gérard Basset Foundation provides scholarships and bursaries funding these and other internationally recognised certifications alongside industry training and mentorship programmes. 

They also partner with organisations around the world that share the goals of improving lives and enhancing careers in the sector. The foundation supports programmes for beneficiaries from disadvantaged backgrounds.These grants, scholarship and bursary programmes have already helped more than 1,300 people and 55 grants across 35 countries and 6 continents. 

At the end of 2024, the Foundation announced six new grants. With Eno Cultura, in Brazil the Foundation is supporting the ‘Wine for Life’, programme that encourages applicants from disadvantaged communities. 

In the USA with the Glancy Wine Education Foundation they are supporting scholarships for their wine certifications, at the non-profit Tales of The Cocktail they are helping up-and-coming bartenders on the Cocktail Apprenticeship Programme, as they are mentored by some of the biggest names in the industry and are working with non-profit Women of the Vine and Spirits Foundation to offer scholarships globally for women to advance their careers.  

In South Africa they are helping students with their course fees for the Cape Wine Master qualification at Institute of Cape Wine Masters and in the UK they are working with Drinklusive, the industries’ first Inclusivity Mentorship aimed at increasing representation of drinks personalities from all communities.

Partners 

To do this they need partners and funds, creating a team and a community advocating for the industry as well as the people entering it. The generosity and financial support of both individuals and organisations helps fund but also helps reach out to potential beneficiaries. 

Taylors Port, Cognac Camus, Artémis Domaines, Wine scholar Guild all sponsor Golden Vines® scholarships and work experiences. The most recent is The Artémis Domaines Golden Vines® Victims of Conflict Scholarships. They offer assistance and career progression to wine professionals who have been affected by war and geo-political conflict. 

To quote Romané Basset, ‘we are both honoured and humbled to be able to award scholarships that will provide educational support and career progression to three wine professionals who have been affected by war and geo-political conflict. Everyone deserves a fair chance’. Candidature is open until 28^th February. 

Putting on the glitz

The main source of revenue for the foundation is from Liquid Icons. Before his untimely death, Gerard was already fermenting a plan with his friend Lewis Chester DipWSET, Hedge fund manager and collector. Together they created Liquid Icons, that is now the Foundation’s main benefactor. Nina says that Chester was ‘the right person, at right time, in the  right place to make this initiative grow’. 

Through their Golden Vines® Fine Wine, Rare Spirit & Experience Global Online Charity Auction they have raised significant funds for the Foundation. This Glitzy and glamorous event is not just a soirée with bids for amazing wines, events and experience, it also includes stunning master classes and free pours of amazing wines from around the world, all generously donated by patrons. It’s the Oscars of the wine world. It may be aspirational but it brings a lot of fun to the industry. Fun is a theme that keeps popping up when you chat to Nina.

Award winning 

The foundation doesn’t only award prizes, they also win them. The Gérard Basset Foundation & Jane Anson‘s Bordeaux Mentor Week partnership won the V d’Or Awards in the « Best Education & Knowledge Sharing » category organized by Vinexposium on the eve of the opening of Wine Paris just a few weeks ago. 

Gérard may not have imagined that a Foundation would be created in his honour, but I’m sure he would be proud of what they have already achieved and to see so many of his friends and mentees working together, continuing to make the industry he loved even more dynamic and diverse. 

You can find a full list of Foundation Scholars here: and a list of Grantees here.

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