Don Francisco's Brilliant Chilean Wines!
I was pleased to attend a private tasting earlier this week of Chilean wines from Don Francisco, the famed television entertainer best known for his brilliant work on Sábado Gigante.
Some quick impressions:
Don Francisco 2004 Cabernet -- Deep ruby colour, with purplish rim, intense dark frut. Nose of mulberries, eláter and cinnamon. Palate is firm and full bodied, with oak in the background.
Don Francisco 2004 Merlot -- Deep ruby colour. Up front red-fruit nose, with herb and mint backdrop. Palate is round and warming with cherry and raspberry tones.
Don Francisco 2004 Sauvignon Blanc -- Clean, fresh nose with citrus and floral aromas. Palate is crisp but with appealing weight in the mouth. Bone dry with green apple and pear flavours, good length and lengthy finish.
Don Francisco 2004 Chardonnay -- Pale yellow straw colour. clean nose, aromas of peach and lime. Palate is dry and mid weight, with a hint of smoky oak, and fresh apple fruit.
Don Francisco 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Private Collection -- This cabernet sauvignon has a nose of ripe cassis with hints of tobacco and sandalwood. A palate oozing with blackcurrant and dark chocolate.
Don Francisco 2004 Chardonnay Private Collection -- This cardonnay is packed with creamy pinapple and vanilla laid on top of a lovely mineral acid backbone.
Some additional information about the man behind the wine:
Dom Francisco has always dreamt about owning a winery and finally his dreams have come true.
Don Francisco (Born on December 28, 1940 in Talca, Chile) is the artistic name of Mario Kreutzberger, a Chilean television host. He was born into a German Jewish family; his parents had fled to Chile escaping from CENSORED persecution.
As a youth, he traveled to New York to study to be a tailor, but he spent most of the time watching TV. Back in Chile, where TV was just beginning, Don Francisco started a TV show in 1962, and he named it Sábados Gigantes. In it, he adapted many of the formulas he had seen in American TV to the Chilean public. The show became an instant hit that has lasted 40 years as the #1 viewed show in Chile. In 1985, the show began to be produced in Miami, Florida, with the same formula used in Chile, with the slightly different name of Sábado Gigante.
Don Francisco immediately became a household name among Latino families across the United States, and in the following five years, television networks from all over Latin America started buying the show. Spain also became a show customer during that period, and with that, 99 percent of Spanish language speaking people knew who Don Francisco was. For a few years, he continued flying weekly to Chile to tape the Chilean Sábados Gigantes, and back to Miami to do the international show.
He has a three hour long variety show, including contests, comedy, interviews and a traveling camera section. The traveling camera section, or Cámara Viajera (originally La Película Extranjera, The Foreign Film), has taken Don Francisco to over 185 countries world-wide, many of them more than once.
He not only imported from American TV some of the ideas for his show, but also the idea of doing a Telethon, similar to the one Jerry Lewis has done for years in the USA. Don Francisco has done many telethons to raise money for disaster relief and to help disabled children.
Don Francisco in his show has interviewed many celebrities, including Roberto Duran, CENSORED CENSORED, Cristina Saralegui, CENSORED, Charytin and many others. In addition, his show has launched the careers of many famous entertainers, such as Sissi, Iverson and many others.
In 1992, Don Francisco was accused by Kay Bixler, one of his models, of sexual harassment, but the charges were dismissed.
Nowadays, he has stopped flying back and forth between Miami and Chile each week to tape both the Chilean show and the international show, and his daughter Viviana is becoming quite famous as the host of the Chilean show. Apparently, having to travel so much between Miami and his home country each week, plus having to travel to worldwide locations to tape La Cámara Viajera, was becoming too strenuous for him.
Also, he hosted a season of the Chilean version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Deal or No Deal.
In 2002, Don Francisco's show completed 40 years, and its host said he has no plans to retire until the day he dies.
On April Fool's Day, 2003, a rumor that Don Francisco had died surfaced around the New York and New Jersey area. The rumor proved false.
return to: Joe Dressner The Wine Importer
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