Luis Fonsi Shares Wine Memories With His Wife & Being A Super Dad In Pre-Father’s Day Celebration With Haute Living & Wine Access

In anticipation of Father’s Day this weekend, Haute Living and Wine Access hosted Latin Grammy Award-winning singing sensation and philanthropist Luis Fonsi for an exclusive wine tasting and conversation. Master of Wine Vanessa Conlin led Fonsi, as well as Haute Living CEO Kamal Hotchandani and SVP of Communications Deyvanshi Masrani, through a tasting of two left and right-bank French Bordeaux wines—a 2016 Clos Fourtet Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe and a 2015 Chateau Pontet-Canet Pauillac—explaining the different soils in each, the different types of grapes used and how Bordeaux, in general, is built upon being a true blend, while Fonsi shared his fondest wine memories with his wife and how becoming a father changed his life. Check out some of the highlights below and scroll to the bottom to watch the video.

Photo Credit: TAMZ

LUIS FONSI ON HIS FONDEST WINE MEMORIES WITH HIS WIFE

To me, it’s like when you hear a song or when you taste a wine, it reminds you of something specific. It just connects to a place or a time and that’s pretty cool…a lot of important moments in my life, especially in the last 10 years, have to do with wine because my wife [Agueda Lopez] is a bit wine lover. She’s from Spain. I’ve always loved and appreciated wine but I really give her a lot of credit because she knows a lot, she studied a lot, and she’s traveled a lot. So, the little bit that I know, I’ve really learned from her…We got married in Napa Valley—it was so beautiful—in a chateau…Everything [was centered] around wine. We were there for a week with my family and friend just tasting wine. And when we got engaged, we got engaged in France, in Paris, on Pont des Arts [the bridge with the locks]. They’re not there anymore. Right after that, the next day, I took her to Bordeaux, and we were there for a week. We got to drink some amazing wine. We stayed at [Chateau] Smith Haut Lafitte at a beautiful chateau there and we got to taste some great wines. Two important times in life…wine was right there with us.

Photo Credit: Romain Maurice

VANESSA CONLIN ON WHAT MAKES BORDEAUX SO SPECIAL

When we talk about Bordeaux, we talk about right bank and left bank. The left bank is more suited towards growing the grape Cabernet Sauvignon and the right bank is more suited to growing Merlot. That’s partly about climate but it’s very much about soil. The right bank has more sort of clay and limestone, and certain grape varietals just tend to do better in certain types of soils. Saint Emilion is on the right bank…and this [the 2016 Clos Fourtet Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe] is very much Merlot-based…it’s 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Cabernet Franc…[The 2015 Chateau Pontet-Canet Pauillac] is from the left bank. This is actually one of my favorite producers. So, as opposed to the first wine we drank, which was Merlot-dominant, this is Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant. But again, [with] Bordeaux, we’re almost always talking blends. So, it’s mostly Cabernet—65%—but then it also has some Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. If I come are the two, I get more of that open, plush, floral notes on the CLOS Fourtet, and this one almost has more darker fruits…and cedar…pencil shavings, like graphite. Generally, when we talk about Pauillac, this region, it’s a very elegant, classic region.

Photo Credit: Wine Access

LUIS FONSI ON HOW BECOMING A FATHER CHANGED HIS LIFE

LUIS FONSI: That’s the most important thing in my life, right there. You know there’s nothing more important in life than family to me. That’s how I’ve been brought up. Being blessed enough to be a father, to have two, great, beautiful kids—Mikaela, who’s three and Rocco, who’s eight—they’re great kids and it’s so much fun to come home and to be able to celebrate all the hard work and share it with them…to sort of have a reason for everything. Before, it was all about me; it’s like, all I need is to have a hit. I need to do that. Now, it’s all about them. It’s like I need to do this for them, I need to be a better person for them. I have this extra push and this extra energy because of them and everything changes; songwriting changes, inspiration changes, the way I am, the way I see things and feel, are different. I love being a father.

Photo Credit: Haute Living via Zoom

ON WINES THE GROUP HAS YET TO TRY THAT THEY LOOK FORWARD TO

LUIS FONSI: I’ve never had Petrus! It’s just interesting, the history behind it…I want to see what all the hype is about!
VANESSA CONLIN: I’ve actually never had La Pin, which is from the right bank. Super small production, very coveted.
KAMAL HOTCHANDANI: I’ve never drank a wine that beautiful in my life [like La Pin], I was blown away.
DEYVANSHI MASRANI: We’ve had some [great] wines…
LUIS FONSI: I’ve seen your pictures on Instagram, I’ve seen what you guys drink!
DEYVANSHI MASRANI: I’ll tell you what I want to have again…I can’t wait to have my next Chateau Margaux but most importantly, with my Dad, who I know is watching right now…that’s the one that I’m missing right now.
LUIS FONSI: That’s beautiful. That changes the taste too, who you have it with.
KAMAL HOTCHANDANI: I love how Wine Access has you tell the story and put it on the bottle…and it tells you the [ideal] temperature.