Behind the scenes with the inaugural Barca-Velha Golden Vines® MW scholars
Sera Karamshuk and Leila Killoran, winners of the 2025 Barca-Velha Golden Vines® MW Scholarships
Sera Svitlana Karamshuk, DipWSET and Leila Tehrani - Killoran, the winners of the inaugural Barca-Velha Golden Vines® MW Scholarships, have already been introduced over email but today is the first time they meet face to face.
Leila joins our video call from Limoux in the French countryside where she has been based since 2022 after purchasing her own vineyard. Sera, an educator at the WSET School in London and a social media wine communicator, joins us from her home in London. Out of 58 applicants, Sera and Leila were selected by a panel of judges to receive £20,000 in funding to cover their Master of Wine course fees as well as an additional £15,000 which may be put towards internships and educational wine travels. The scholarship also includes a unique SOGRAPE Portugal experience, during which they will get to visit SOGRAPE’s wineries and vineyards in the Douro Valley and elsewhere. To top it off, they get to choose a mentor from the panel of judges to guide them on their MW journey.
“Obviously I swore,” Leila admits with a laugh, thinking back to the day Romané Basset, Co-Founding Trustee and Head of Operations at the Gérard Basset Foundation, called her and offered his congratulations. “I was like, ‘No way! Are you kidding me?’”. Sera had a similar reaction. Coming out of the classroom and seeing a missed call from Romané, her first thought was that she’d been unsuccessful in her application and that the Foundation was phoning to let her down gently. Upon hearing the good news, she thought to herself, ‘Is this really happening?’. For both Leila and Sera, however, the joy of winning came accompanied by a wave of self-doubt. Out of all the 58 applicants, there were many worthy candidates, and they both have friends or colleagues who applied. “I kept thinking ‘Why me?’”, Leila confesses and Sera nods in agreement. She has named the period between receiving the scholarship and starting her MW next year her ‘MW honeymoon’ and she intends to begin her independent studies right away so as not to feel overwhelmed when the programme kicks off.
Getting the MW would open doors in the wine industry which Sera dreams of stepping through. The owner of a wine blog on Instagram, she visits as many wineries as she can in order to learn more and tell their stories to her audience, but she is often met with reluctance and disinterest when she asks more technical questions. “I can’t wait to be able to dive deeper into these wineries,” she says, explaining that people don’t take her seriously and just treat her like a tourist. There is nothing wrong with the marketing stories and the press tours, but they simply don’t satisfy her curiosity. A Doctor of Chemistry, ‘too technical’ is not a term which exists in Sera’s vocabulary.
So why does Leila want to undertake the MW? She takes us back to when she was a teenager in Manchester. Half-Iranian, working class and on the poverty line. She didn’t enjoy school, her attendance was 20%, but she studied at home instead, which frustrated her teachers. On her last day, the Head Teacher of her school told her that he couldn’t understand why she bothered taking the exams as she wasn’t going to pass anyway and that she would never achieve anything in life. She has carried those words with her ever since. “I use it as fuel to carry me forward and show that I do belong in this industry,” she explains. “[The MW] is the final cherry on the cake to say, ‘I have achieved something’. I don’t think he will ever know, but I basically have a huge chip on my shoulder. Failure is not even an option.” Not surprising then that her role model and inspiration in life is fashion icon Alexander McQueen, a man who refused to take no for an answer.
The conversation moves onto the topic of inclusion and accessibility, the core of what the Gérard Basset Foundation stands for. “We need to dismantle the old gatekeeping structures,” Leila says. She is a strong believer that the new wave, be they old or young, need to be allowed entry and given the space to create something new. “The gatekeepers have done a fantastic job of building this industry that we love, but it needs to evolve.” Sera is quick to agree, pointing to the speed at which humanity itself changes and evolves with new stories and insights: “The wine industry needs to reflect the real world”. It is a product which is meant to be shared others, so why exclude people from it? “I can enjoy a good meal on my own,” Sera says, “but a good wine on my own? That feels like a shame.” The desire to share her wine experiences with others is what pushed her to start her Instagram blog. She cites Jancis Robinson as one of her sources of inspiration for wine writing, as well as Gérard Basset whom she admires for his humility and never-ending desire to learn more – traits which are evident in both Sera and Leila.
The Gérard Basset Foundation is delighted to welcome Sera and Leila into the alumni family. They will both attend The Golden Vines® Awards in Miami this November to receive their trophies and meet everyone in person.
Congratulations again to you both on winning the 2025 Barca-Velha Golden Vines® MW Scholarships!