Life comes as it comes. You sit on a terrace a summer afternoon, someone sniffs in the fridge and pulls out a wine that you can no longer out of your head. This was what happened one summer two years ago when we sat down to eat something with my other I Gustavo Carlos Pascual and Barone, in the Mediterranean restaurant, located on the corner south of Maldonado and Yaro, in Montevideo.
Pascual went boldly in the refrigerator and brought something. "I found this," said brandishing a wine bottle with a soft orange color we could not say it was pink or white, let alone what varieties would be done. It was open, look and try it. Total love. Of course, the circumstances could not be more favorable. Sitting friends over the half-life in the shadow of a giant banana, as Montevideo and protector, toasted by the encounter and the history that unites us.
He said that this was the beginning.
In May last year we met with Juan Andrés Marichal in London. He ended the show and was exhausted. But it was worth it. Marichalwines is now present in 7 countries including USA and Europe. And as we said then, what matter who fall in love with their wines.
The reunion was signed in Montevideo. On 3 March this year we met again. This time in your home that is located 40 km from Montevideo, where for four generations Marichal dedicate their lives to wine in the same houses that are updated to modern times. The days of wine in bulk passed. First the father of Andrew and now he and his brother Alexander lead a winery that produces a wine that competes internationally, which is recognized by the public inside and outside the boundaries and showing that these are the ways to do that a country should be represented.
We talk to the foot of vineyard. The weather was heavy. Wet and rainy summer. Very near the sea and no more than 100 meters high, you have to plant hierbitas to steal nutrients and water to a too rich black earth. Plants are not more than 3 miles from the winery where the fruit comes in slow, careful not to break any of the selected grains.
They keep the original plant with modern technology. Cooled with water, do not add fertilizer or herbicides near water let alone. In 2002 he raised the conversion. The goal is to reach 200,000 bottles, which I'd like to be less to not jeopardize quality. Today are around 100,000.
Marichal is a family winery from beginning to end. There is the mother, father, siblings, aunt and great-grandson who prepares dumplings that taste a glory to take them during the tasting.
We sat around a table well lit while the rest of the room was darkened. What might seem at once formally became a conversation between friends that we tasted wine lovers and kept on telling us what its creator as we ate bread sticks, cheese and more bondiola meat empanadas and ham and cheese that did nothing but confirm that we were family. "Do you realize we're working?" Said Andrew to talk about the privilege of living environment of the wine world.
But what happened above all things was the big surprise. Because we knew we were going to experience a level of excellence alive, moving and original. I have to pay very good money in shops in Spain, France or Italy to reach this level.
But of course these are only words made of bits of zeros and ones that do not compare to the experience of these wines. I think wine lovers known and unknown in Spanish lands can not help feeling sleek modernity of Uruguayan wines. For this we are getting ready and preparing to produce the event.
And believe me when I say there will be a before and after ...
Who is coming?
