The Wine-Geek Must-Have Experience: A Private Tour at Cloudburst
Forbes, Breanna Wilson
Cloudburst winemaker Will Berliner has a reputation for being the bad boy of winemaking. And not just because the price tag on a bottle usually ranges between $350 to $500. It’s not until you step onto the grounds at the winery and listen to Berliner, an American biologist with a degree from Yale and the UC Davis enology program, talk about the vines and the practices he uses that you understand why his reputation precedes him.
Cloudburst first rose onto the local wine scene when they were awarded Best Cabernet Sauvignon, Best Red Wine and Best Single Vineyard Estate Red Wine for their 2010 vintage at the 2013 Margaret River Wine Show. To say it got the attention of fellow winemakers in the area, and the world, would be an understatement.
But Berliner’s approach is simple. It’s not about the number of vines, or age, but how you treat them. It’s as simple as that. And watching as he meanders through a row of vines during a visit that was only possible because of one of those friend of a friend-type connections, it was his pure respect for the vines, talking to them calmly as he unwinds several from the cordon wire, that truly comes through, making finding a way to get a tour from him personally one of those once in a lifetime experiences every wine-geek should seek out.