Fresh from his brilliant seminar at Imbibe Live, where Gerard Basset MS MW Wine MBA OBE and co-owner of Hotel TerraVina in the New Forest, explained to the assembled crowd how to win sommelier competitions (the answers: sponsorship, a team of expert coaches and advisors, extreme dedication, a very patient wife and The Pink Panther) Basset has announced plans to expand the TerraVina brand. Such a move is far from foreign to the Bassets, as Gerard previously co-founded the wildly successful Hotel du Vin chain, growing the brand to a chain of six before selling to MWB in 2004.

Plans are afoot for sister properties to the 'Wine Connoisseurs' Hotel' – founded and operated by Gerard and his wife Nina – as well as a stand-alone London restaurant which will potentially sit outside of the TerraVina brand. Nina explained to Imbibe that 'We have been looking at rolling out the TerraVina brand for quite some time now and would be keen to do so with a TerraVina by the sea and then look to other, smaller towns as prospective sites also. Obviously none of them are to be too far from where we are now, as we still need to be able to nurture the original property.'

Proposals have also been drawn up to extend their existing hotel, with the addition of five further bedrooms, taking the total up to 16, and to add conference and tasting rooms.

News has also reached us that TerraVina’s head sommelier, Laura Rhys is to continue in her current position, contrary to reports. While Rhys had suggested that she would be leaving the hotel in the near future, discussions with the Bassets have resulted in a decision to extend her employment there by at least one year.

As a result of this confusion, Rhys' place of work was erroneously reported in the Sommelier Wine Awards booklet as Ex-TerraVina, when in fact she is still very much a part of the operation.

News item from Imbibe.com, 11-07-2011