27th June 2024 – After carefully reviewing 24 applications from 13 countries, The Gérard Basset Foundation and Liquid Icons are delighted to announce the 10 winners of the 2024 Golden Vines® Wine Scholar Guild Scholarships:
- Deniz Bayram, UK
- Denman Chan, Taiwan
- Eduardo Contreras, Mexico
- Harnil Mathur, Hong Kong
- Jounghwa Yi, Korea
- Junqi Peng, USA
- Karene Vilela, Brazil
- Sammy Lam, USA
- Valeria Tenison, France
- Xeniya Volosnikova, France
These Scholarships are awarded at the discretion of the Golden Vines® Diversity Scholarship judging panel to the most outstanding applicants. The judging panel for the 2024 Scholarships was composed of Angela Scott as Head Judge, and one of 2021’s Taylor’s Port Golden Vines Diversity Scholarship winners, Nina Basset FIH, Rajat Parr (Sandhi Wines), Clement Robert MS (Liquid Icons), Ronan Sayburn MS (The Court of Master Sommeliers Europe), Neil Tully MW (The Institute of Master of Wine), and Jancis Robinson OBE MW.
Each winner is awarded full enrolment in one of the WSG flagship scholar programmes (French Wine Scholar, Spanish Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Scholar) as well as WSG membership for one year, the last benefit being offered for the first time to enable scholars to rub shoulders with some of the very best people in the world of wine as well as have access to live events and additional study opportunities. WSG has awarded these scholarships for the last four consecutive years, ever since The Gérard Basset Foundation was founded in 2021.
Four of the 2024 winners have decided to enrol in the French Wine Scholar course, two have decided to enrol in the Spanish Wine Scholar course, and two have enrolled in the Italian Wine Scholar course. The last two winners decided to defer their scholarships until 2025 to be amongst the very first students in the world to take the German Wine Scholar course, a brand-new course from WSG that will launch for the first time in the middle of 2025.
According to Preston Mohr, managing director of WSG: “The Gérard Basset Foundation continues to lead the way in charitable giving within the wine, spirits and hospitality spaces. The organization is a benchmark example of how education can change lives and open doors. WSG is proud to have now supported the educational path of forty scholars since 2021 and we enjoy watching them grow throughout their studies and beyond.”
Romané Basset, co-founder and trustee of The Gérard Basset Foundation: “The Wine Scholar Guild has been a key supporter of the Gérard Basset Foundation’s mission since day one. Because of their generosity, every year we are able to welcome forty talented and passionate scholars from a diverse range of backgrounds and circumstances into our community and help them to gain new wine knowledge and thrive in their career within the industry, with 40 having been supported with WSG courses since 2021. We are so excited to see all that this year’s Scholars will go on to achieve.”
