An Interview with Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate Man in Spain

This is a modest translation of the interview with Ángel Espejo published in yesterday’s Diario de Jerez.

What brings you to Sanlúcar de Barrameda?

I’ve come to taste the wines of the Marco de Jerez and a few others from Andalucía, and while I’m here I’m going to present my new book “Los Nuevos Viñadores” (Planeta Gastro) as part of the series of tastings at La Taberna der Guerrita. But I’m usually here every year and combine work with sharing some wines and fun with my friends.

Luis Gutierrez with Robert Parker (foto:decantalo)

Awarding Parker points is a great responsibility and not devoid of pressure. How do you do it?

My job is to write articles but they have to be accompanied by tasting notes and scores. For me it is very important to understand what is happening, speak with people, visit the vineyards, the place… because in the end you understand the wines when you walk in the vineyard. In the end it all boils down to a number, the score, which for me is a hierarchy of how I see the quality of the wines. People think I make a list of numbers, but if I did that I would only be working a couple of days every couple of months, and it’s not like that. I’ve just been in Galicia, and only the tasting notes and explanations of the bodegas would fill another book.

When you started with Robert Parker Sherry didn’t exist in the guide…

When I started I saw that there had never been an article on Sherry in the Wine Advocate and I was the first to write one. A few Sherries had been tasted for the publication but out of context and without getting to the bottom of the wine which for me is important. I am an engineer so I am logical in my thinking and I like to understand the how and why of things. And wine is much more than what goes into the bottle. It is about traditions, culture, countryside, the place, the gastronomy… For me that is all information and the articles I write for the Wine Advocate are very similar to what I have written in the book. I believe people are much more interested in that than in numbers which are just a simplification in this hierarchy of wine quality.

Is it a job or a way of life?

Wine is not a vocation, it is a passion, it’s mad and takes up all your time, and those of us caught up in this madness are happy because we love what we are doing.

“Los Nuevos Viñadores” is a book about wine in which you talk very little about wine.

Yes. It is a book of stories, human stories, about people, about who they are, where they live and what they do, but the idea was that someone like my mother, who knows nothing about wine, zero, could read the book. I didn’t want to write a technical book because I think we put people off when we talk like that and make things too complicated and exclusive. It annoys me when people say they don’t drink wine because they don’t understand it yet they eat meat without understanding it.

Why this obsession with making the world of wine so complicated?

You either like wine or you don’t and you can complicate it as much all you like because it is a super- complex, infinite world. The more you learn the more you realise how little you know. It is important that we try to simplify it all and bring wine closer to the people because we are creating a sort of ghetto, a wine sect, we are isolating ourselves. We have the lowest per capita consumption in Europe and that is dreadful.

How do you feel when you come across a wine with 100 Parker Points?

I always say that it is a wine which accelerates the heartbeat, which really brings out your emotions, it drives you crazy, it sets your head spinning. And after trying it I get to searching everywhere to buy some, whatever it costs.

Armando Guerra, Luis Gutierrez in Guerrita shop (foto:spanishwinelover)

In your book the land obviously attracts you.

I believe that the diversity we have in Spain is very important and in the book I show that diversity and how the wines reflect it. Wines could all be made the same which I don’t like at all, and the more you get into it the more you want differences and personality, which is what the market wants right now. Spain has a tremendous advantage because we have so many indigenous grapes which we have been undervaluing and now we are recuperating them. Tempranillo was standardised in Spain and brewed up all over the place, but how are you going to produce a Ribera del Duero in a subtropical zone with white grapes? It’s been tried of course and was a disaster.

What do we lack?

We lack belief in what we have, and the big step forward is that we are beginning to believe. We have always had some sort of complex, like improver grape varieties. What happens if yours are worthless and you need something to improve them? It’s crazy. It’s about not making all wines the same but about making them different and adapted to each place. It’s happening in the Canaries, in Galicia and Jerez. Right now there is a tremendous acceptance of these different wines in Britain and the United States. What’s happening in Jerez is amazing, and for me Equipo Navazos has put Sherry back on the world stage. People wonder why what they are doing, something as simple as selecting wines and demonstrating how they really are, has not been done by anybody before?

Eduardo Ojeda (Estevez & Equipo Navazos) features in the book (foto:diariodejerez)

THE PAST IS THE FUTURE

In his new book, “Los Nuevos Viñadores” Luis Gutiérrez (Ávila, vintage 1965) examines 14 Spanish wine regions to offer a human profile of the growers who, in his judgement are making some of the best wines in Spain. “Robert Parker’s Man in Spain” is presenting his book in Sanlúcar tonight at a tasting at Taberna der Guerrita along with a tasting of the wines of this new generation of winemakers, many of them young but some of retirement age, who share his passion for wine and understand it as a way of life. It is a passion born of a respect for the soil, the vineyard and its traditions which they are recuperating to show in their wines that the past is the future.

More on Parker Points

The influence of Robert Parker on wine consumers around the world is beyond any doubt. Perhaps the Wine Advocate has fewer followers in Spain, but it has a legion of faithful followers in the US and Asia, two of the world’s most important markets for wine, and also for Sherry which has seen itself spurred on in the little more than a year since Luís Gutiérrez joined Parker as his taster for Spain, Argentina and Chile.

Luís finds it hard to conceal his devotion to the wines of Jerez and last year he consecrated two wines with 100 points: Barbadillo’s Reliquia and Valdespino’s Moscatel Toneles. This year another Sherry won 100 points: Equipo Navazos’ La Bota de Amontillado No. 49 Bota AR. There are very few old wines like this in the area and according to Jesús Barquín, co-founder with Eduardo Ojeda of Equipo Navazos, it is a wine that speaks of history, it is a piece of history which took decades and decades, generations and generations to achieve this level of quality.

L-R: Jesus Barquin, Luis Gutierrez, Cesar Saldana (foto diario jerez)

Of all the wines awarded 100 points in the latest edition of the Wine Advocate the La Bota No. 49 is the most affordable at about €75 per half bottle, and Jesús says that he had no doubt that such an exceptional wine would score 100. He does not say this to sell the wine which is already hard to find, but to point out that there are collectors who buy up all the 100 point wines leaving very few bottles available – and the guide has been out for a month already.

Another Equipo Navazos wine, La Bota de Palo Cortado No. 47 (from the same source as No. 49) and a wine from Bodegas Tradición achieved 99 points in the guide. This success extends to Sherry in general. No fewer than 75% of the over 60 Sherries tasted by Luís were awarded 90 points or more, qualifying them as “excellent”, and that doesn’t include some local table wines.

Emilio Hidalgo’s Palo Cortado Privilegio scored 98; five Williams & Humbert wines scored 90 or more: Pando, As You Like It, Oloroso Añada 2001 and the Fino en rama Añada 2006 and Oloroso Añada 1982 both scored 93. Jesús believes that the arrival of Luís was providential for Jerez as he has a much better understanding of the wines and they are now more prominent than before in the Wine Advocate.

The Parker tastings will be centred on new wines, that is to say small sacas, special releases or new vintage wines rather than the same old solera brands which have been in previous editions. César Saldaña, director of the Consejo underlined that the bodegas are no longer limiting themselves to marketing their solera brands as has been the case until recently. They have taken account of the limitations to innovation inherent in the solera system, and though it will naturally continue, many producers are seeking differentiation in which they see many opportunities. He sees this as the right road to take with limited special releases, añadas, seasonal sacas etcetera, giving new challenges to the marketing people.

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18.1.15 Parker Points for Bodegas Collantes

Bodegas Primitivo Collantes in Chiclana has received 90 Parker points for both its Fino en rama Arroyuelo and its Amontillado Fino Fossi. Arroyuelo is aged under flor for five years while Fossi also ages under flor for five years and then ages a further ten years oxidatively. Congratulations to Bodegas Collantes and to Luis Gutierrez, Parker’s man in Spain,  for looking beyond the three main Sherry towns.

Chiclana mayor Ernesto Marin (r), Fino Arroyuelo and its makers (foto +Jerez)

               

14.1.15 Faustino Gonzalez 91 Parker Points; Consejo Elections

Bodegas Faustino González of Jerez have received excellent points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate magazine. Both their Fino en Rama Cruz Vieja and their Amontillado en Rama Cruz Vieja were awarded 91 points by Robert Parker’s Spanish expert, Luis Gutiérrez, who remarked that this bodega is one to watch. All the more exciting, as these were the first bottlings for the open market after many years as almacenistas. They are to be heartily congratulated! UK importer: Jose Fine Wines in London.

The elections for the Consejo Regulador will have to be delayed until spring as the Junta de Andalucia’s Agriculture Department has yet to reply to  the allegations of Fedejerez (the bodegas’ representative body on the Consejo), which object to the draft order in which each body can only vote on one standpoint. Up till now the bodegas have been able to vote as vineyard holders as well as bodegas, but the Junta wants to restrict this to a firm’s main business only.

The Agriculture Department informed the Consejo of the bones of the order at the beginning of October hoping to publish it as soon as possible so that the elections could be held at the start of this year, but three months after Fedejerez presented its objections – in which they also complain about the lack of consultation and direct communication with interested parties other than the Consejo itself – there is still no reply.

The Junta hopes to publish its order in February, and thereafter there will be three months for the Andalusian Denominaciones de Origen to hold their elections, which could delay them till April or May. It is worth remembering that Fedejerez chose the contentious route in case the Junta went against them. 

13.1.15 González Byass Wins High Parker Scores

The latest issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate magazine has awarded excellent points to no fewer than six González Byass wines:

Tio Pepe en Rama – 91

Cuatro Palmas – 96

Tres Palmas – 93

Dos Palmas - 92

Una Palma – 91

Palo Cortado Añada 1982 – 96 (single butt, only 667 bottles)

The tastings were done by Luís Gutiérrez who is Parker’s man in Spain, and show how seriously Sherry is now taken.

4.9.13 Parker Points for Gonzalez Byass

At the press Sherry tastings held recently at the Consejo Regulador, at which Estevez did so well, Gonzalez Byass also received some very high scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate tasters as follows:

Cuatro Palmas: 97

Tres Palmas: 95

Dos Palmas: 91

Una Palma: 90

Amontillado del Duque: 94

Matusalem Oloroso Dulce: 93

Palo Cortado Apostoles: 92

PX Noe: 91

Tio Pepe en Rama: 92