Gérard Basset Foundation Publishes 2021-2022 Impact Report and Announces Funding Grants to 19 Grantees Globally

11 JANUARY 2023 | LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – The Gérard Basset Foundation is delighted to make available its 2021-2022 Impact Report (its first), which details the work done by the Foundation and performance results for the past two years since its inception on the the 7th of January 2021. The Impact Report contains information on:

• Gérard Basset, the Foundation’s vision and its mandate
• The Foundation’s world-class multidisciplinary team of six wine, spirit, hospitality, education, finance & technology professionals
• Its partnership with Liquid Icons who sourced 201 first-class auction lots sold through 4 Golden Vines® Auctions
• Over £2.2 million of charitable funds raised
• Over 39 Scholarships and Bursaries from over 15 countries and 21 nationalities with detailed profiles of the Scholars and Bursary Recipients
• Information on 16 Grantees from 8 countries and 4 continents which received funding from the Foundation with detailed profiles of all Grantees

Please find the 2021-2022 Impact Report here: https://gerardbassetfoundation.org/impactreport

We are now looking forward towards 2023 to continue the journey towards our strategic vision – building an industry-leading charitable Foundation for the wine, spirit & hospitality industries.

Having raised over £1,000,000 for the second year running at the Golden Vines Awards Ceremony & Gala and related auctions, held in Florence from the 15th-17th October 2022, the Trustees of the Gérard Basset Foundation have awarded funding grants to 19 Grantees to fund diversity & inclusivity-focused educational and training programmes in the wine, spirits and hospitality sectors globally. These grants are in addition to the various Golden Vines Scholarships awarded by the Gérard Basset Foundation and Liquid Icons in partnership with our generous sponsors.

Nina Basset, Co-Founding Trustee and Chair of the Gérard Basset Foundation, commented: “We are delighted that once again we have a fantastic range of Grantees from across the globe, some who we worked with last year as well as some new ones too. We’re thrilled to be supporting their varied initiatives and cannot wait to see what they achieve.”

Funding has been awarded to the following Grantees for the 2022/2023 year (*denotes those Grantees we worked with in 2021-2022). More information on each Grantee will be added to the Gérard Basset Foundation’s webpage, link at the end of this press release:

• The 280 Project, USA*: funding 5 apprentices on their viticulture apprenticeship program, teaching students “everything from the vine up”. All students come from BAME/BIPOC/LGBTQ+ backgrounds.
• Association de la Sommellerie Internationale and Sommeliers Academy, South Africa and Zimbabwe: funding co-sponsored by the ASI to create a comprehensive scholarship for an African sommelier to be trained to an international standard.
• Be Inclusive Hospitality, UK*: to continue our support of ‘Club Thrive’, a members’ club  providing networking, educational and career opportunities to BIPOC hospitality professionals.
• Bordeaux Mentor Week, France*: to support the organisation of the second edition of the Mentor Week aimed at opening up Bordeaux and mentorship opportunities in the industry to a diverse range of students.
• Celebrare, Brazil: to create 10 ‘Gérard Basset Foundation Oenophile Scholarships’, offering students from underprivileged and minority backgrounds a wide and foundational wine education.
• Ceva de Spus, Romania: to fund specialised training, education and ongoing support for physically and intellectually disabled students to enable them to start a career in the hospitality industry.
• Creation Wines, South Africa: to fund education for Creation Wines’ tasting room team members, many of whom originate from marginalised communities.
• Curious Vines, UK: funding the educational and mentorship initiatives set up to help female wine professionals in the UK learn together and train for certification and sommelier competitions.
• Eno Cultura, Brazil: to support the educational budget of ‘Eno & Hers’, a non-profit program offering training and mentorship to women facing systemic barriers so they may gain employment in the wine and hospitality sectors.
• The Hue Society, USA and South Africa*: continuing our support of the Hue Society’s educational and mentoring initiatives, all to improve representation of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in the wine world.
• Humanwinety, Portugal*: funding will pay the admission fees of the first 66 students to sign up for Humanwinety’s unique wine and hospitality courses set up for minority groups, especially those with physical and intellectual disabilities.
• International Sommelier Guild, Global*: funding will go towards continuing the Gérard Basset Foundation Scholarships offered by the ISG for their courses for students from historically disadvantaged communities.
• KEDGE Wine School, France*: 1) to support 12 students taking the KEDGE foundation Sommellerie program, promoting social diversity as all candidates will be underprivileged and unable to pay for the program, and 2) supporting the 5 best performing candidates from the foundation Sommellerie course to undertake KEDGE’s expert Sommellerie course, which further incorporates business skills as well a deeper focus on technical competencies.
• The Pebbles Project Trust, South Africa: to fund the hospitality-focused aspects of the Pebbles Project’s educational and training programmes aimed at improving the lives of underprivileged communities.
• Pinotage Youth Development Academy, South Africa*: to continue contributing towards the PYDA’s ‘Wine and Marketing program’, as well as supporting their graduate employment and development initiatives.
• The Roots Fund, USA*: funds will continue to go towards the ‘Stay Rooted in Education’ and ‘Rooted in Culture’ scholarship programmes, which provide support to BAME/BIPOC individuals seeking to achieve certification in a variety of wine qualifications.
• Terra-Uma, Israel: to support Terra-Uma’s unique approach to providing therapy for PTSD-suffering veterans through winemaking.
• Wine & Spirit Professional Centre, Greece: to create a programme for 25 single-mothers to access top-quality professional wine, spirits and hospitality education and enter a career in these sectors.
• Women of the Vine and Spirits Foundation, USA: to create 3 WSET Diploma Scholarships, to be awarded by WOTVS Foundation to deserving female wine professionals in accordance with our mandate.

About Gérard Basset Foundation

Set up to honour the legacy and memory of Gérard Basset OBE MS MW by addressing the wine industry’s most pressing issues through education, training & mentorship, the Gérard Basset Foundation comprises a multidisciplinary team of industry-leading professionals: Nina Basset FIH, Romané Basset, Lewis Chester DipWSET, Ian Harris MBE DipWSET, Sasha Lushnikov, Jancis Robinson OBE MW: https://gerardbassetfoundation.org

About Liquid Icons

Liquid Icons is a fine wine research and content production company founded by two friends to “do stuff in wine” – the late, great Gérard Basset OBE MW MS and Lewis Chester DipWSET. We create first-class original content and research about the world’s greatest fine wines and spirits. Our work encompasses motion picture, industry research, recognition and celebration of wine and spirits excellence, charitable and fundraising activities, as well as educational initiatives: https://liquidicons.com