Guillermo Cruz by Mugaritz

GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

“I have loved the world of wine since I was a kid”, it is something that is so deeply rooted in him that studying and looking for unique wine producers is not an effort for him, it is a huge pleasure. Professionally speaking, he is really strict with himself but it is about character, it is an effort that is part of who he is. He thinks that it is important to build his own path and not to get trapped in the comfort zone and once he has reached one of his goals, he look for a new ones. That constant search sustains the tension, the hunger of learning, travelling to meet those people who are behind the bottles and whose philosophy is the one that makes the wine genuine. That aim makes him understand producers, as it is fundamental to show it in the dining room of Mugaritz.

“It is one of the most enriching experiences, as a person and as a sommelier”

GUILLERMO CRUZ

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In his house there is an important culture around wine. He can’t remember any meals in which his father, his uncles or grandparents didn’t drink a glass of wine. For Guillermo, wine is culture, it is reality in a bottle, but more importantly, it is home. The path to being a sommelier… “In this context, I decided I wanted to be sommelier when I was a child. It is weird for me to see a meal without wine – except when you are at work. When I was a child I really loved to understand what was behind a glass of wine. My mother forced me to keep studying, she made me finish school and to go to Gastronomy School before I got my Sommelier degree.” That’s when everything started, he began learning while at his Enology Master’s Degree, and then the WCT came. It might seem like a contradiction, but, even though he didn’t really like school, in his life the act of studying and learning has never stopped. This passion transcends all the aspects of Guillermo’s life. When he travels on holidays with his wife, he loves to visit new places, but he always need a moment to visit interesting wineries. It is another way of understanding the local culture.

PHOTO © AITZOL ETXEGOIEN / MUGARITZ

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

WG catches up with Guillermo Cruz, Head Sommelier and Head of the Front of House team of Mugaritz…

How much of a skill is required to properly pair food and wine? Can anyone learn to do it expertly, or do you need a natural flair? I believe everything is about training, effort and being constant. In Mugaritz, from every corner of the kitchen, you can read on the wall a sentence: “The possible of the impossible lies in the willingness of the human being” I agree with the values that lie behind this sentence and I understand that, with work, sacrifice, and passion you can reach the goals you have. I can see that this values are reflected in our sommelier team, in our FOH team, the research and development team. The only way I think that is not possible to create a wine pairing is without eating and drinking. You cannot pair using your memory as a tool, it is important to taste, to try different combinations, to play, to experience. I would like to add that pairing wine and food is an act of a thousand combinations that could match, but I believe the unique way of merging the solid and the liquid part is to pair stories. To create emotional harmonies which are a new language themselves to communicate, through gastronomy, a feeling, the effort of a local producer, a moment that only two people who shared it can transmit it…

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EVERYTHING CHANGES PHOTO © JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

You closely worked with Natsuki Kikuya, how did it help and influence you as a sommelier and what was the experience?

Working with Natsuki Kikuya is truly amazing because she has a unique vision: the perspective of a woman who was born in a Tojis family, who are Kura owners, and, at the same time, a person who understands Europe and its society. Sake is a cultural matter to her. When you listen to her talking about sake, she is actually speaking about her family. Sake means home to her, it is her childhood. She has helped us to build our sake menu with the goal of creating an amazing list that can help you travel to Japan through its liquid part. Outside Japan there is not a deep sake culture, and Natsuki has helped us understand that this drink is an artisanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work that needs a context to be enjoyed, because the unknown tends to generate rejection. She has helped along this path.

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ORYZAE STYLE PHOTO ÂŠ JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

What is the Sake philosophy at Mugaritz, take us through the process of pairing Sake...

Mugaritz has been connected to Japan almost since the project started in 1998. I could say that some people from our team could have been born there, for their common values with Japan, for their way of thinking. In 2010, when our kitchen caught on fire and we had to close the restaurant, that connection to Japan had its peak; although we were so far away from them, Japanese chefs, culinary journalists and other people from the world of gastronomy in that country were amazing to us in those difficult moments. Now, our connection has gone one step further and we connect with them through emotional harmonies. Our first sake harmony were crab threads with a macadamia nuts cream, a dish with artisan textures that was perfect to pair with a Junmai Daiginjo. After that, we evolved the concept and now we use dishes to give context to sake and its culture. In 2017, someone brought to us a jewel: a unique Doburoku bottle we had never seen before, one of those sakes that finish the fermentation inside the bottle, a deeply traditional style which is served in the houses of sake producers. Something that special could only be served to our diners with something really special for Mugaritz. We decided to use a creative exercise, we had been promoting in the last six years to show sake: it is called ‘hake in white’ and it is a way to leave a really narrow space to creativity, because of two rules: use hake (a product rooted in Basque Country kitchens, and with an amazing texture) and the dish has to be served only with white ingredients. The seventh hake in white from Mugaritz, in 2017, was a hake with Doburoku. This year, for example, we serve a fermented rice with lobster, and another different rice fermented with a caramel coated koji. We show, in the solid part of this emotional harmony, two different fermentation processes, and, in the liquid part, we share with our diners four glasses at the same time, with two Koshus and two Junmai Daiginjo, to give the opportunity to understand the differences between different ways of polishing rice for sakes and different fermentation processes, Nowadays, we have a sake menu divided in different kinds of rice, with around 90 references from almost all the prefectures of Japan.

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7TH HAKE IN WHITE, ‘DOBUROKU’ PHOTO © JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

Your passion to taste, learn, and especially to share your expertise on wine continues to grow... What keeps you motivated? Appearance, Aroma, Bouquet, Taste, Aftertaste and Overall Impression are some of the factors considered for a good Sake – take us through the process of selecting the Sake’s for Mugaritz. Right now we have 90 different sakes. To get there, we have probably tasted around 3.000. In the end, the key point to get certain sake to Mugaritz is to, of course we look for technically good sakes, but the main factor is the emotional part of them, sakes with a story to be shown, sakes that can bring to diners hidden values of Japanese culture. We like to have the most quantity of different kinds of rice and the most number of prefectures represented. We also believe that more than one reference from the same producer must be in Mugaritz, because it is the way to respect and honor their style.

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THE VOLCANIC AGE PHOTO © JOSE LUIS LOPEZ DE ZUBIRIA / MUGARITZ

Basically, in the wine world you never stop learning. It is impossible to know everything. I guess that, once you are close to that point of feeling that you know everything, the reality of what you feel evolves and you have to start learning again. That is simply amazing. I love talking about the stories behind the wines. I love making people happy, having the chance of doing so, of sharing that moment with people who have a deep knowledge of the world of wine and with those who don’t, but who are curious. There is something else that is really special to me and that makes everything have a sense: the time the R&D team from Mugaritz and I share to search for stories, to create new ideas, to go further around emotional harmonies. Having the opportunity to be part of a creative process is a gift to me and I’m thankful for Andoni and all the R&D team.

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

In your opinion best Sake’s and

which are the the best wines?

I like sakes from Dassai, from the Yamaguchi prefecture. I’m fan of Matsumoto, from Kyoto prefecture, and Dewazakura from Yamagata prefecture.

There are so many wines all over the world that it is really difficult for me to choose...

But I could talk to you about German Riesling wines, all the wines from Maria José López de Heredia and her family winery Viña Tondonia, in Rioja, all the world of Sherry wines.

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

How important is it to properly pair food and wine? It is important because you can bring the dish or the wine to another level. It is important to do so with ideas, values that you really share, that are not artificial to you, with a story that makes sense.

“If you don’t properly pair food and wine you can break the coordination between the solid and the liquid part, you can create confusion”

It is always about balancing the solid and the liquid part, to let them have a conversation between equals. That’s when you manage to get to a higher level. How is the art of food and wine pairing evolving? Some years ago, when they started talking about pairings, there were wines for pairings, basic wines with a good relationship between the quality and their price. Nowadays, few restaurants invest great wines in pairings, the common idea is to keep with that first scenario, while the dishes of a degustation menu are all high class dishes. That is something that can create confusion, because you serve high level dishes with ‘regular’ glasses of wine. We share another philosophy, we defend to serve high quality bottles in pairings because it is the only way to reach more people with unique wines. We love to think that this idea can inspire other restaurants and help them walk through this different path, the one that talks about uniqueness and once in a lifetime moments, with the liquid part of the experience. I don’t want to share a 1.500 euros wine with just a table, because it is going to be bought only by someone who can invest that amount. I feel a unique bottle needs to reach more people, some of them who cannot afford to pay 1.500 euros, but who deserve to taste that story behind that bottle. Generosity is the key. There is nothing more beautiful than sharing unique bottles.

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GUILLERMO CRUZ

WG MAGAZINE

What was the feeling when you were awarded the Best Sommelier in Spain in 2014? It was a recognition to all the efforts. I remember that year perfectly because it was special,

“I pushed hard to meet the expectations”

I understood how important it is to travel and to have the perspective of the producers behind a bottle, and I learned many values, I understood how far you can get with effort and being humble. They are values that are part of me and that I try to transmit to the front of house and the sommelier team at Mugaritz.

What does it take to get the qualification for Sommelier of Sake? There are different courses all over the world. WSET for example, it is taught in London. In fact, Natsuki Kikuya is the teacher there. There are sake lectures organized by the Sake Sommelier Association with different levels of expertise, and Japan hosts many lessons. There are different ways to get knowledge around sakes, and all these organizations make a highly valuable effort to teach sake culture both in Japan and outside that country. For all those interested in sake, I would give them a small piece of advice: while learning from these teachers, it is really helpful to travel to Japan, to meet the producers, to understand the way they live, the effort being sake, the values that are rooted in this beverage.

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