Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World's Favourite Sommelier

Contributor(s): Basset, Gerard (Author)
Publisher: Unbound
Language: English
Paperback : 256 pages
Pub Date: December 08, 2020

Biographical Note:

Arguably the greatest wine professional of his generation,Gerard Basset was a World Champion Sommelier and the only person ever tosimultaneously hold the Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and MBA Wine honours.He co-founded the hugely successful Hotel du Vin Group and later founded, withhis wife Nina, the award-winning New Forest boutique wine hotel, HotelTerraVina. In June 2011 Gerard was appointed OBE, acknowledging hisextraordinary contribution to the British hospitality industry - the crowningglory of a remarkable career that saw him become one of the most credible,approachable and respected figures in the wine world.

Description for Sales People:

Gerard Basset was arguably the greatest wine professional ofhis generation: a former World Champion Sommelier, he was only person ever tosimultaneously hold the Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and MBA Wine honours.He co-founded the hugely successful Hotel du Vin Group, and in June 2011 wasawarded an OBE, acknowledging his extraordinary contribution to the Britishhospitality industry. For fans of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fuelled Journey into theArt of Sommeliers and the Science of Taste by Bianca Bosker, Wine - A Way ofLife by Steven Spurrier, The Accidental Connoisseur by Lawrence Osborne.

Publisher Marketing:

A school dropout, Gerard had to come to England to discoverhis passion. He threw himself into learning everything he could about wine,immersing himself in the world of Michelin star restaurants and beginning thesteep climb to the top of the career ladder. Tasting Victory charts hisbusiness successes: co-founding and selling the innovative Hotel du Vin chain andfounding, with his wife Nina, the much-loved Hotel TerraVina. It recounts indetail just how he managed to earn his unprecedented sequence ofqualifications; Gerard is the first and only individual to hold the famouslydifficult Master of Wine qualification simultaneously with that of MasterSommelier and MBA in Wine Business. But it is his pursuit of the most importantaward of all that forms the core of this book - how, at his seventh attempt,and after a training regime that would shame most Olympic athletes, thefifty-three-year-old Gerard Basset was finally crowned the Best Sommelier ofthe World, and acknowledged as the greatest sommelier of his generation.Gerard's memoir is not only the story of how a champion is made, but also arecord of how fine dining and hospitality changed in England, going from staleand unexciting to the world-leading sector it is today. Above all, it's a bookabout succeeding against great odds: in typical fashion it was when he wasdiagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus that Gerard responded by deciding towrite Tasting Victory, which he completed shortly before his death in January2019.