Andrés Conde Laya, Best Sommelier in Spain: “No wine is worth more than 500 euros”

Betting on medium-priced wines, local projects and fleeing the snobbery of their world, Andrés Conde Laya has converted the restaurant that his grandfather founded in the 40s in Santander, La Cigaleña, on a “sanctuary for wine lovers”, which has earned him the award for Best Sommelier in Spain.

In an interview with Efe, Conde Laya defines himself as an “anti-classist” of wines, an idea that he captures in his letter, composed mostly of average prices (20 to 30 euros), among the more than 41,000 bottles in its cellar. “For that price you can have extraordinary wines and that possibly, from my personal point of view, are better than those worth 200 and 300 euros,” he points out.

That is why he thinks that “no wine is worth 500 euros, although the grape costs 100 “, some prices that he attributes to the fact that the areas from which they come are expensive in themselves or, even, to the use of wine as a financial asset, a business that is very profitable and offers great returns. he is more interested in “the customer who comes to enjoy with a limited budget of 20 euros”, compared to those who are going to drink expensive wines “due to social status”. “Great wines don’t mean great prices“, reiterates.

“A trip with a glass of wine”

Even so, he admits that this conception of wine is not always to the liking of the public. “When you tell someone that a super Burgundy and for which they have paid a lot of money is made of wood and has no soul, they do not understand it, They do not understand that you say directly that something that is expensive or internationally recognized is not worth it or is not good“, he points out.

For this reason, Conde Laya has designed a place where wine lovers return, with affordable prices that offer “a trip with a glass of wine” to those places where he travels to know the wineries and the production methods.

Bet on personal projects

In La Cigaleña he refuses “the great labels of more globalized wine” and bets on personal projects, with little intervened wines, explains the sommelier, who points out that this commitment to small producers and natural wines It has involved “swimming against the current” for many years until the wind has blown in your favor. “Now everyone talks about ‘bio’ wines, little requested, but we did that here many years ago, although we have never been in favor of promoting it,” he says.

Conde Laya emphasizes that as a wine fan, what he does most is being able to meet the people behind the crafting, the intentionality inherent in each harvest or the weather conditions that influence the final result. A story that he aspires to pass on to his clients, since he is “lucky” to be able to live that story up close, talking with the producers and visiting their wineries.

“Taste is subjective”

Including everything that surrounds the wine-making process in a tasting is much more stimulating than the taste itself, since it recognizes that “taste is subjective” and, due to such considerations, rejects what it defines as “mythologies”, such as the one that the wine improves with the years.

Related news

On November 4, the Royal Academy of Gastronomy appointed Count Laya Sejor sommelier of Spain, an award that he has never sought and that is the result of the work “of many generations” and many people, starting with his grandfather. The recognition comes in a very complicated year for the hospitality industry, in which he admits that he has “suffered a lot on a personal level” due to the uncertainty and after which he predicts that the consumer has become “more demanding when it comes to investing their money” .

This Monday he picked it up at a gala in Madrid where other distinguished professionals were present this year: Nacho Manzano (Casa Marcial), Best Chef; Marta Campillo (Diverxo), Best Room Director; Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch (Enjoy), along with Jon Sarabia (Abalon Books), National Award for Communication 2021 for ‘Enjoy Vol.I’; Ymelda Moreno, president for almost 30 years of the Cofradía de la Buena Mesa, and Rafael Ansón, president of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, Lifetime Achievement Award. The biologist Juan Martín did not arrive in time to collect the National Prize for Gastronomic Research and Innovation for the Zostera Marina project that he has developed together with Ángel León (Aponiente).