Jordi Cubino: "I have about 300 bottles of wine at home, and 280 of these are white"

Your facet as a singer, producer and coach It's very public, but what about your life outside of work?

— It's very easy. I really like to be quiet. I have lived in London, Tokyo and Barcelona, ​​which is one of the cities I love most in the world. Although I really like this movement, I really like the quiet life. I like to go out on my bike, I enjoy the garden with the pool, being with my friends... It's really a very normal life, I don't do anything special. When I am invited to events I almost never go, unless it's a commitment, because I don't feel comfortable.

If you have a busy work life and enjoy a quiet life, what is the space where you find yourself with wine?

— I have been interested in the world of wine since I was 25 and at home I have a small cellar with about 300 bottles.

So it's not small. What references do you have?

— Now many wine experts will say that I have no idea: I have about 300 bottles of wine at home and, of these, about 280 are white. I must only have about 20 of red wine. I really like white wine. I don't know if I have a wine culture, but I know white wines from all over the world and I like to buy them. French, German, South African, Chilean, from the United States, also from here, of course. Above all, I really like the white wines from Catalonia. They are very well made. But if I had to choose a designation of origin, I would choose Penedès or Montsant. Outside of the whites, I have 10-12 good bottles of red wine, just for fun when friends come over. In the end, I drink two glasses at a dinner party, I'm not one of those people who starts bottle after bottle. I don't drink anything else either, not whisky, not vodka, not anything like that.

Of all these bottles, you must have a favorite. What do you keep for a special moment?

— I never save things for special moments because maybe you save them and that moment never comes. I am more about going through the day. For me, the journey is more important than the milestone. It is when you have a good time. So I don't have a special wine for a specific day, I drink special wines every day. Obviously, this doesn't mean that I drink a 200 euro bottle every day. Man, if one day I am angry or it is a bad day, even if I start with an expensive bottle and it is a very good wine, that bottle will seem like crap to me, because I will not be feeling well emotionally. It is all very subjective.

When you were 25, you were living a very sweet moment in your professional career, with fans all over the world under the pseudonym of David Lyme. Do you think that entering the world of wine is linked to financial availability?

— I think it is less so now, I think everything has become democratised and now everyone can have access. I think that starting at 20 euros you can find very good wines. But it is true that when I started to get into this world I went to quite sybaritic dinners because I went with people from the record company, the manager, among others, and they looked at the restaurants recommended by the Michelin Guide. We did not lead an uncontrolled life, we were disciplined because we knew that the next day we had another concert or we had to travel to another city.

You must have good anecdotes with these environments.

— Many. I won't tell you who it was, but 15 or 16 years ago I remember going to a restaurant in Miami with a musician whose producer I was. The person in question ordered a spectacular Vega Sicilia, which cost, no kidding, 1,800 euros a la carte. Of course, it's a Vega Sicilia, which should cost 700, but the restaurant charged double that. The singer also ordered a Fanta at the same time. I was already surprised, but when I saw how the singer mixed Vega Sicilia with Fanta... I looked at myself with a horrified face. A sommelier even came to tell me what he was doing. But of course, he was paying for it, so nobody could say anything.

Does your passion extend to sparkling wines?

— I'm not a big fan of cava or champagne, but if I have to choose a cava, which I drink very little, I really like Kripta and Imperial by Gramona. But the truth is that cavas don't usually go down very well with me, they do something [points to his stomach]. Then there are the French ones, there's a very good one that I've only tried twice, which is Cristal. It was when I was making a record with Montserrat Caballé and I tried it with her. Also, it seems that it was Pavarotti's favourite champagne and I was told that he would drink a bottle of Cristal every night by himself.