Meet Fintan Kerr a 28-years-old and originally from Macclesfield, England. Fintan is a Wine Cuentista, “Wine story-teller” in Spanish.
Katrina: Fintan Kerr, who is a Wine Cuentista, He has a wine club called Maestrazgo Wine Club. Tell me a little about you, as a wine Cuentista – storytelling and wine?
Fintan: Wine for me is a relatively recent thing. I’ve been studying and working with wine for the last two years. But you meet most people in wine, and they’ve been in it for very long periods of time. So this place that we’re in at the moment, Bodega Maestrazgo, was how I used to unwind after days work come in here and drink a glass of wine. And Jose the owner was the first person who started to explain wine to me and I just became fascinated by how subtle nuances in the soil, climate the different trellis systems, what you do in the winery. Can influence the final product , which is how something tastes. And I started to organize very small wine tasting events and they just became very very popular. People enjoyed them and I enjoyed giving them. So I decided, let’s make a go of this, and see if we can make it work.
Katrina: I see so how many people can attend?
Fintan: 10 maximum. Groups are always 10. We want to keep it small and intimate. With ten people I can choose more different bottles of wine. So I can spend more budget on better quality wines, and more of them, rather than double up on bottles.
Katrina: What makes your wine tours different to any other?
Fintan: If you look on meetup there is an awful lot of wine event and wine groups. But they tend to focus on the social aspect first and the wine second. We very much focus on the wine first and the social aspect second.
Katrina: What is your favourite region in Spain?
Fintan: Not a very popular opinion in this particular corner of Spain but it’s La Rioja.
Katrina: Why?
Fintan: They simply make wines with traditions and heritage that you don’t often find in the rest of Spain.
Katrina: Is La Rioja one of the biggest export regions?
Fintan: Yes hugely so. Particularly for the UK market. That is a major export destination.
Katrina: When I was in La Rioja, I noticed that there were enormous bodegas and I think the only way they can survive is export.
Fintan: Right. They have to.
Katrina: Tell us about this wine.
Fintan: The reason I chose this wine, is it was one of the first wines that made me sit and take notice of wine as more than just an alcoholic beverage. It’s a pretty modern style Ribera del Duero. So Tomas Postigo. Is actually a gentleman, he was a wine consultant for quite a long period of time, and has his own bodega. And he’s using an international grape varieties. It’s just a beautiful, well balanced wine and it’s 15% alcohol, which is not small it’s a very big wine. But, you don’t taste a sense of heat on the mouth. Which to me means the wine is in a nice balance. When the intensity of the fruit is masking the fact that this is as powerful as others. I don’t actually drink as much wine as people may assume. It’s one of the issues with working and studying.
Katrina: You’re studying at the moment?
Fintan: The Diploma of the Wine and Spirit Education trust. So the final level with the worlds biggest educational body of wine.
Katrina: You’re doing this in London?
Fintan: Yes. Unfortunately, you can’t study it in Spain. There is no school that is able to offer that kind of education here.
Katrina: So what made you, enlightened by?
Fintan: The one eureka moment, was Jose who’s not in the picture at the moment. I had been drinking wine here for a few weeks at this point; he was starting to explain little bits and pieces of wine to me. And I asked him, would you be interested in doing a Wine Tasting for me. So I bring some friends. I’d be interested for you to explain Spanish Wine to me in a way that we can understand. And I went, this is so much fun. This is really interesting. And that if you will was the little snowball that has turned into quite a large snowball.
Katrina: So where do you want to take your knowledge?
Fintan: I want to become a master of wine. Which is the highest accolade within the wine industry? There is only 357 of them in the world at the moment and only one in Spain. Which is a bit of oversight. The long-term commercial reality of what I want to do. I haven’t quite realised which is a bit naive, but at the moment, I’m just enjoying finding my way around the world of wine. Educating people, learning about it myself, sharing it.
Katrina: So when will you have your Diploma?
Fintan: I am taking my final exam in January 2018, and I will have my diploma three months after that.
Katrina: If people want to come to the wine tastings and learn more about you, where can they find you?
Fintan: My Website which is www.winecuentista.com. And of course, I’m also slowly but surely getting active on social media. Listen to the full interview here:
Listen to the full interview here: https://www.mixcloud.com/peopleontheg…
