by dev855asiv2 | 28 Feb 2019 | ASI News, Press releases
We had known it was bound to happen, even if we ignored it and hoped for a miracle. Still, it struck us as a thunderbolt. It is bizarre how you can see things coming for so long and still be shocked when they hit you – like a rabbit frozen in the headlights....
by dev855asiv2 | 28 Feb 2019 | Gerard Basset
Gérard has always been special to me. We first met in the late eighties and our paths crossed a few time until I really got to know him when he won the Champagne Ruinart UK Sommelier of the Year in 1992. From that moment, I discovered his fighting spirit. He could not...
by dev855asiv2 | 28 Feb 2019 | Gerard Basset
I have lost my mentor, friend, confidant and spiritual father. I had known Gérard for 20 years. I think about what always impressed me, with Gégé, was the way he would tell or explain things. When I was preparing for competitions, he was always sacrificing his time to...
by dev855asiv2 | 28 Feb 2019 | Gerard Basset
The first time I was lucky enough to cross paths with Gérard Basset was during the 1989 Best Sommelier in the World competition in Paris, in 1989. A few months before the finals in Rio, in 1992, where I was going to represent France, he phoned me to ask if I could...
by dev855asiv2 | 28 Feb 2019 | Gerard Basset
When Gérard was nearing the end of his life, we were able to have a short discussion on the phone about his book and the publishers I had suggested. Poor Gérard was in a lot of pain then and found it quite difficult to speak, but he was most anxious to know about the...
