Madrid’s elegant Palacio Cibeles, the neo-Gothic, Modernist palace, was the venue for 2024’s Golden Vines Awards last month, celebrating exceptional achievements in fine wine and rare spirits.

Honoured in this year’s awards, Vega Sicilia (Spain) earned the prestigious title of Robb Report’s Best Fine Wine Producer, while The Sadie Family Wines (South Africa) shone as the Rising Star. Notably, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (France) was lauded as Europe’s Best Fine Wine Producer. Other honours were bestowed upon Harlan Estate (California), Henschke (Australia), Familia Torres (Spain) and The Macallan (Scotland). Felton Road Wines (New Zealand) took home the Gucci Sustainability Award, and Jasper Morris MW was inducted into the Golden Vines Hall of Fame.

Since 2021, the Golden Vines wine and gastronomy weekends and awards have showcased top producers in wine and spirits through tastings, masterclasses, auctions and performances in some of the most exclusive venues. Editions have taken place in London, where guests were serenaded by Kylie Minogue; Florence, where Massimo Bottura catered for guests in the Salone dei Cinquecento at the Palazzo Vecchio; and L’Opéra Garnier in Paris, where guests drank the most expensive wine in the world, Liber Pater, made from Bordeaux vines from Napoleon III’s era.

Over 1,200 wine professionals participated in the voting, including 68 Masters of Wine, 29 Master Sommeliers and 301 WSET diploma holders. Lewis Chester, Liquid Icons CEO, who co-founded the event, says it was created to ‘honour the remarkable excellence in wines and spirits, and the dedicated individuals and supporters driving the industry forward’. Golden Vines weekends are ‘about creating a balance between respect for the wines, celebration of the winners and having a ton of fun while raising money for charity’.

The beneficiary is the Gérard Basset Foundation, established in honour of one of the most revered wine professionals in the world, Gérard Basset OBE (1957-2019), to support new and emerging professionals in the wine industry, from non-traditional backgrounds.

Basset was a celebrated Master Sommelier and a Master of Wine who won the ASI World Sommelier Championship in 2010. Before there were multi-hyphenates, Basset, who came from modest means and had ‘little education’ (in his own words), studied and attained every single important – and impossibly difficult – wine qualification under the sun. He was the first and only person to hold Master of Wine simultaneously with the Master Sommelier, Bordeaux KEDGE Wine MBA and the OIV MSc.

He was also a founder of the Hotel du Vin, where he mentored and trained sommeliers. He was known to be generous, kind and inclusive, and would always give any emerging sommelier a fair shot, no matter where they came from, his son Romané recalls.

Romané, who directs the foundation today, says the aim is to support wine professionals globally, and ‘to show that the wine, spirits and hospitality industries can be a meaningful vehicle for change’. It began with the idea of doing ‘something philanthropic with my father’s legacy’, he says. ‘Because my dad, as well as being a sommelier of great achievement, was incredibly humble and he loved mentoring.’ However, it took off when Gérard’s best friend, Lewis Chester, organised the first edition of the Golden Vines Awards and raised more than £1 million for the charity through a series of “money can’t buy” experiences involving rare wines, unicorn vintages, as well as legendary winemakers, chefs and industry professionals.

These events and auctions enable the foundation’s philanthropic work. Today it offers a two-fold awards programme that includes three annual diversity scholarships to individuals. The “scholars” receive a £50,000 stipend, in addition to travel expenses, peer mentoring and visits or short-term internships with top wine and spirits estates across the world. The foundation also supports organisations working to enhance equity in the wine world. ‘When it came time to set up the foundation, we really wanted to have an impact, and diversity and inclusion felt like something that the industry wasn’t getting right.’

Wine, like any other luxury area, contains fascinating contrasts between the connoisseurs with spending and consumption power, and the vignerons and sommeliers who make and serve the wines. Basset, and what he achieved, was a challenge to such structures, as he worked his way up the industry to attain expertise in what has traditionally been a closed world. This makes him the ideal figure as a symbol of transformation in the wine industry, showing how education, practice, access and mentoring can be offered to new entrants from non-traditional backgrounds in wine. ‘Once someone is in our fold, we want to keep helping, nurturing and mentoring them with the view that we can get them to be the best they can be, and then they will carry that forward to other people entering the industry,’ Basset says.

At a time when statistics abound about how new generations are drinking less, inclusivity at all levels of the industry is essential for conveying the joy and love of wine to new markets of wine connoisseurs. The definition of “sustainability” in the industry must also incorporate people and workers, alongside environmental concerns, if the culture of wine is to continue to grow in future.

liquidicons.com; gerardbassetfoundation.org