Decanter judges honour Basset

Judges came together to honour Gerard Basset on the opening day of the Decanter World Wine Awards judging week.

Basset, recently crowned Best Sommelier in the World, had spent the morning as regional chair of the new Languedoc Roussillon panel.

But as the panels broke for lunch, Basset was presented with a specially commissioned cake by Decanter publishing director Sarah Kemp and chairman of the judges Steven Spurrier, amid choruses of ‘for he’s a jolly good fellow’.

The 52 year old French-born sommelier beat off competition from 51 other contestants to take the title in Santiago, Chile.

Gerard Basset is currently the only person in the world be a Master of Wine, Master Sommelier, and hold an MBA in wine.

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Written by John Abbott

John Abbott is a digital executive based in Durham, UK. He was editor at Decanter from 2011 to 2015, during which time he helped to launch its sister website, DecanterChina.com. He left to found his own company, the former digital agency Tiger Creative. Since 2018 he has held the position of CEO at international technology start-up, Globeflow.