Send to a friend

Print

del.icio.us this

Digg this

Winemaker of the Year 2009 finalists: Larry Cherubino - Larry Cherubino Wines

It’s becoming a well-worn track: outstanding corporate winemaker leaves multi-national to establish a small, high-quality family company. While it was Larry Cherubino’s good looks that caused a near riot in the usually sedate office of Gourmet Traveller WINE on his nomination for Winemaker of the Year when he was Houghton’s chief winemaker in 2003. It was, however, the leap in quality of the Houghton portfolio, especially the premium reds, that made him such a strong finalist in the eyes of the judges.

There is a restless energy about his work and the pace at which he operates. This was never more evident than in the period after he left Houghton, when the focus of attention was his global work as a flying winemaker. Cherubino consulted for wineries in Sicily, South Africa, the US and New Zealand.

Certainly, his focus in recent years has been on consulting within Western Australia – to local and interstate companies. The family lives in Perth and is based in Margaret River during vintage. He regards the work of building his own labels – Cherubino, The Yard and Ad Hoc – as moonlighting. Yet it is the quality of the wines under the three labels produced by the family wine company that he has been nominated for a second time as a finalist in the Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year.

He says, “Having three labels gives us the flexibility to move our resources around. Ad Hoc is designed to be playful and experimental.” The Yard are single-site wines from regions that have an affinity with the variety: sauvignon blanc from Pemberton, Great Southern riesling, Frankland River shiraz, and Margaret River semillon sauvignon blanc. Most fascinatingly, there are three 2008 rieslings from different sub-regions of the Great Southern. There are small volumes of both these ranges: 3,000 cases of Ad Hoc and 2,000 cases of The Yard. These, however, seem substantial compared to the 500 cases released bearing the Cherubino label: single-site Margaret River cabernet sauvignon, Frankland River shiraz, Pemberton sauvignon blanc, and Mt Barker riesling.

Producing such small volumes indicates a conservative approach to building a business and one that is paying off in today’s tough times. Cherubino says, “I’ve grown up in the industry in a period of huge growth, where no one can do any wrong. The old guys at Hardys who had been through rough times and were conservative as a result of that taught me to be prepared for difficult times.”

There are three keys to understanding Cherubino’s success with his own labels. His experience at Houghton saw him covering thousands of kilometres getting to know and keeping in touch with the state’s best vineyards. Access to fruit from his father-in-law David Edgerton-Warburton’s Acacia Ridge vineyard and the ability to influence the management of how it is grown has played a significant part in making some of his finest wines. Finally, as well as attention to detail and sheer hard work, there is an instinctive quality about his winemaking honed, of course, by years of experience. He believes in spending time in the vineyard, in paying attention to canopy and water management, and most importantly, picking at the right time. He has moved towards minimal interference in the winery, doing less to wine than he did before including giving them less time in oak. The sum of all this is that Larry Cherubino wants his wines to be distinctive and to speak clearly of their variety and the site from which they come. And they do.

TEXT PETER FORRESTAL PHOTOGRAPHY CHERUBINO/FRANCES ANDRIJICH

This article appeared in the June/July 2009 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.