Gérard Basset Foundation leads UK winners at V d’Or awards

By Hamish Graham

Published: 10 February, 2025

The Gérard Basset Foundation and the Bordeaux Mentor Week won the ‘Best Education & Knowledge Sharing V d’Or’ category at the V d’Or awards 2025. The event, attended by Harpers, was hosted by Vinexposium at the Pavillon Gabriel in Paris on the eve (9 February) of Wine Paris.

Bordeaux Mentor Week, which is funded by the Foundation, provides access to the wines and people of Bordeaux for a group of young mentees starting out in the wine trade. The seven-winning mentees receive a hands-on experience across all aspects of the Bordeaux wine trade, learning about harvesting, blending, production, tasting, marketing, as well as how to navigate distribution channels.

The mentorship encourages people to apply who may not have adequate educational support or financial means to make a start in the wine trade.

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The mentor programme is one among many initiatives funded by the Gérard Basset Foundation, whose Golden Vines scholarships includes the Victims of Conflict scholarship, which provides a 6-month paid scholarship to three scholars who have been affected by a geopolitical conflict.

Other awards handed out on the night included another UK winner in The Boatyard Distillery who won ‘Best Sustainability V d’Or - Spirits’. The Enniskillen distillery won the award thanks to their bottle refill service and 2.8L ecopouches.

Rodolphe Lameyse, CEO of Vinexposium, was pleased with how the event represented innovation in the wine and spirits trade.

"In just two years, the V d’Or awards have become recognised and highly sought-after prizes for both small and large businesses in the wine and spirits sector," he commented. “Their success highlights Vinexposium’s central role in an ecosystem brimming with initiatives and creativity."

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