Gerard and Nina Basset — the husband-and-wife owners of Hotel TerraVina in the New Forest, Hampshire — certainly have a pretty good pedigree when it comes to running hotels.
French-born Gerard co-founded the hugely successful Hotel du Vin chain in the Nineties, while Nina, who is English, is a former AA hotel inspector.
It's not surprising then that we, like most of the guests who book into TerraVina for a short break away from it all, had high expectations. Throw in the fact that we'd heard that Gerard (a sommelier by profession) had just been named 'Best Sommelier in the World' at the ASI World's Best Sommelier Championships in Chile, and you could say our anticipation of great things to come sky-rocketed.
Thankfully, TerraVina didn't let us down. The Bassets have done an admirable job transforming a previously rundown small hotel into a smart boutique location with 11 luxurious bedrooms (and five new ones to come this year). Every room has its own unique character, but all are furnished in a simple, contemporary style with natural colours broken up with bold splashes of green, yellow, orange and red.
On the warm summer's day of our visit, we were thrilled to find that our room had a large outdoor terrace complete with loungers and umbrellas (some of the other rooms have big balconies), while the bed was supremely comfortable and we loved being able to make ourselves a decent coffee with the neat little Nespresso machine provided.
They get some business guests at TerraVina, but most people come here for a relaxing leisure break, and in particular to sample the food and, even more so, the wine. It's not only Gerard who's won numerous accolades for his wine expertise, TerraVina's other sommeliers Laura Rhys and Laurent Richet have also won major awards in the last year, so you can expect a fine list and plenty of good advice on what to choose.
The food (served from an open kitchen in the casual, stylish restaurant with its unclothed wooden tables and glass enclosed wine cellar) is suitably impressive too. Particularly good was a starter of local lobster salad with an avocado bavarois, Alphonso mango and sweet wine jelly — washed down with a glass, not of a French wine, but of a dry and fruity Bacchus from the Camel Valley Vineyard in Cornwall. My main course of seared wild sea bass with fennel cream, summer vegetable lasagne and English asparagus was a beautifully constructed dish, accurately cooked and with tip-top ingredients — and Laurent's wine recommendation proved the perfect accompaniment.
Hotel TerraVina is a peaceful place. Whether we were in our room, sitting outside on the patio, having breakfast on the hotel's decked verandah overlooking the garden, or swimming in the outdoor heated pool, we felt completely relaxed and as though we were far deeper into the New Forest National Park than the reality of being just 15 minutes' drive from Southampton.
The staff certainly play a huge part in creating that relaxed atmosphere - they were so pleasant, friendly and helpful, we felt we could've asked for a flying pig to be delivered to the room and it wouldn't have been too much trouble.
Hotel TerraVina, 174 Woodlands Road, Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 7GL (+44 (0) 23 8029 3784; hotelterravina.co.uk). Room rates from £150, per room, per night.
