Comment on: Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Rated 5.0 stars.
This one came top of the poll at my local wine tasting club.
by Simon 01/08/2009 19:45
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German's Story
My father was a grape producer for many years. In addition, he rented a winery to make his own wine. This is why I grew up between vineyards and old tanks of cement. I remember when I was young, I liked to lay with the grape residue, and I used to run after my sisters and throw it over their white dresses!
Now several years on...what I like the most about my work is that it’s possible for me to create, taking lots of different elements of nature. At the same time, I very much like this work because I am sure that the winemaker profession is a life style where you are always thinking, observing, smelling, learning, etc… to apply to your wines and make them better. It is like being a father, where each of your wines is like a son; you love him with its virtues and defects…
My winemaking philosophies? I believe that the most important factor is to respect the place where the grapes come from, without intervening too much, and leave the grapes to express themselves. Another point is to be very careful during the extraction period of red wines. I taste my tanks at least 2 or 3 times in the day, in order to have a non-aggressive and smooth process. You need to be very conscious that every decision you make, will have an effect in 2 or more years time. And finally; blending, blending, blending!
In Chile, we don’t need a lot of inputs to be able to produce good quality wines, other than healthy grapes. In our particular case, we are in Maipo Alto, a privileged zone for the production of grapes, were we respect our surroundings as well as our landscape.
I work with an absolutely fantastic team at Perez Cruz, and I always believed that a good wine is the product of a team rather than an individual. I have the luck of being the visible face and the one that receives the congratulations for the wines, but everyone in the team is key for the final result, from the person who prunes the vineyard, to the worker that sticks the labels etc. The emotional support from my unconditional wife also gives me the security and the confidence that I need to produce great wines."
German under the Naked Spotlight
Naked: "After a hard day's work, how do you like to unwind?"
German: "Appreciating the unique view of the Maipo Valley, ideally riding a horse through the hills of the Andes"
Naked: "What is your finest winemaking moment?"
German: "I have a lot of good moments, like this year, we are the 'Winery of the year 2008' in the Wine and Spirits Magazine. But I believe the most significant was to obtain the James Roger Trophy in the International Wine Challenge with our Syrah Reserva Limited Edition 2002, our first harvest in history..."
Naked: "What type of wine would you say your most like?"
German: "Hmm, that's difficult... but if I was to compare myself to a grape I would say a Syrah – versatile and the ability to adapt to different situations"
Naked: "And what is your ideal meal?"
German: "Definitely Lambs Tongue, ideally under the shade of a big olive tree in Provence, with a large glass of wine!"
Naked: "Other than your own wine region, what other wine region in the world would you chose to work in?"
German: "I would love to travel to Greece and learn about the Santorini vineyards – and of course lay down on the beautiful beaches for a while!"
Naked: "And finally, if you had to offer one piece of winemaking advice, what would it be?"
German: " I would say that there is no recipe to make a good wine, you just need to like what you do..."
Hello German
In addition to buying a couple of your wines and enjoying them, I had the pleasure of attending the Wines of Chile Annual Trade Tasting 2009 two days ago in London as one of Naked's Assistant Buyers. I have not totalled how many wines I tasted, but the important statistic is, yours were the most memorable and enjoyable. There we were, trying to identify new talent for Rowan to snap up, and he already had the best! Your representative, in addition to sporting a fine shirt and a full head of hair, was a decent chap, and very knowledgeable about your "terroir". It was a pleasure to listen to him while he poured the samples.
I discovered just before leaving that the Liguai was at least short listed for a prize of had won one. The results are not on the website yet (www.winesofchile.org.uk), but either way, well deserved, and I hope to find it back in stock here soon.
by Lee 11/09/2009 23:31
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