Recently in Wine Category

Michel and Alain Roux last night played host to a stellar line up of more than 100 chefs and industry luminaries who joined the father and son at their restaurant, the Waterside Inn, to celebrate 25 years of three Michelin stars.

The Waterside Inn, which first opened in 1972, is the only establishment outside of France to have achieved 25 consecutive years of Michelin's top accolade.

Last night's event saw the UK and Ireland's Michelin-starred chefs gather at the iconic restaurant in Bray, Buckinghamshire, with guests including chefs Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Gary Rhodes, Marcus Wareing and Pierre Koffmann.

Other chefs included Tom Aikens, Tom Kitchin, John Burton-Race, Angela Hartnett, Andrew Fairlie and Atul Kochhar, as well as Michelin director Jean-Luc Naret and the UK and Ireland Michelin guide's editor Derek Bulmer.

Guests were served a menu of 25 dishes taken from menus created at the Waterside Inn over the past 25 years. They included flan d'escargot en habit vert from the 1985 menu; turbot en croûte de volaille à la sauge from 1989; canard aux clous de girofle et au mile from 1995; fondant de pigeonneau et caille au citron vert from 2000; and entremets amandine à la pomme verte from 2010.

Congratulations to Gerard Basset who has been named the World's Best Sommelier.

The Hotel du Vin founder was awarded the title having triumphed over 51 other contestants at a competition in Santiago, Chile.

Each finalist took on 40 minutes of practical tests including blind tasting, describing in detail four different wines and identifying eight spirits in three minutes.

Speaking after the event, French-born Bassett said: "It's the most difficult thing I've ever done. In the end I just thought I'm going to enjoy it and make the judges happy, even if I don't win."

He will hold the title until the next competition, to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2013.

Basset had twice previously come second in the World's Best Sommelier competition. He is the only person in the world who is a Master of Wine, Master Sommelier and who has the Wine MBA.