Eden Mylunsch
Eden Mylunsch
Granted, the title can be taken a couple of ways. Do geezers like me (who may or may-not have been hip before it was hip to be a hipster, daddy-o) change our palates over the years? Or am I thinking about putting away some of the kool-kids bottles to see how they turn out after a couple of years in the cellar.
At one in my drinking career, all I could afford was Zinfandel, but this was back when 1976 Ridge or Green & Red were $4 a bottle, two-thirds the price of the extravagance of a 1970 Louis Martini Special Selection or Charles Krug Vintage Select Cabernet (and that $2 difference was why I drank Zin rather than Cabernet). Back then I liked the froot and the implications of klassiness that I was drinking wine rather than Hamm’s lager, but I was in the process of developing my palate prior to when the influence of intrusive winemaking efforts or post-harvest hydration or any of the then-extraordinary points-attracting techniques that have since become de rigueur in modern-day California winemaking became the tale leading the dog (it’s became about the story rather than the wine in the early 1980s, dig?)
And you know, a lot of those wines seemed to have turned out real okay and drinkable down the road, with some on roads being longer than others. Mr. Kane was among the first in our immediate circle to realize that there’s gold in them thar (old Napa) hills, despite alcohol levels approaching 13%. They’re restrained and elegant and taste of Napa (or Sonoma) hillsides and valleys, and have turned into somewhat sedate versions of the what they once portended to be. And because it wasn’t Carlo Rossi or Thunderbird, I was cool because I drank California Boutique wines and a 1975 Freemark Abbey Bosché or Charlie Wagner-era Caymus was under $12 and worth it, and they were happy I was buying it so they wouldn’t have to plant nuts or string beans or whatever their parents were growing before they planted grapes.
But as you know, all bets are off nowadays and every dot.com genius and their sister are growing grapes and making “artisanal” wine “made in the vineyard” and creating brands and dynasties and the upshot is that wine isn’t what it once was. Some of it is better than it used to be and some of it is merely a beverage conveying alcohol and status. And as more money comes onto the scene and the boutiques are subsumed into the portfolios of lifestyle brands a vacuum was created with the lack of “honest wine,” resulting in a category to fill that vacuum, ergo: hipster wine.
I don’t think it’s been commodified enough yet for like, SGWS or RNDC to have a “hipster wine” designation on their self-reordering websites (do they even offer those wines in the first place?) but it’s a legit category at both on and off-premise, and one that has followers who will defend to their death their right to fall upon swords that the wine they like is the only true wine, the holy grail of the conscientious imbiber. And the collectors/drinkers of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Barolo will say “a wine ain’t shit unless it evolves with age in the cellar” but today’s youthful wine drinker will say “live for the moment, carpe diem, kill ‘em all and let god sort ‘em out.”
And I’ve got lockers full of old shit and I really enjoy them; I like older wine (for the most part) but I’m also pretty interested in the new shit, where there are occasionally some dicey winemaking choices being made, but for the right reasons, by winemakers who are cognizant of their market demographic. I visited a hipster winery recently and was shocked, shocked I tell you! to find more than a hint of mouse on the finish of one of their wines. I brought this up to the winemaker, a UC Davis-trained sort of guy who’d worked at some of the most legendary wineries in Napa, and he said “it doesn’t matter my customers drink all this stuff within about 15 minutes of opening it, and besides, it’s not like they’ve been drinking great wine all their lives and know that there’s anything else out there. To them, this is what wine is supposed to taste like.” And y’know, that make sense. Just because it’s not what I’m used to drinking doesn’t mean that it’s bad, does it? Or maybe it is, but I’m fluent in Instagram and Facebook but TikTok doesn’t make sense to me. My bad.
But what happens when you do age the stuff the kids dig? I haven’t amassed much of it, certainly not enough to do any prognosticating on the topic, but I’ve opened a couple of what would be considered hipster wines recently and haven’t exactly been overwhelmed. Should I have even expected anything? Maybe not, but that’s my problem.
Tonight I tried the Domaine Partagé Gilles Berlioz Les Filles 2016 Chignin Bergeron that I’d remembered as brilliant on release voluptuous with plenty of acidity and it reminded me of the best of Bob Lindquist’s single-vineyard hillside Roussannes from his days at Qupé. Well, these days the wine is as flashy and opulent. It reminded me of apricot nectar (only clear) with some minerality. On its own it seemed like it’d seen better days, not bad nor uninteresting, but kind of like someone who buys everything offered by GOOP in an effort to remain relevant. But in my belief that CONTEXT MATTERS! I poured it alongside a vegan lentil soup I’d purchased at the local farmer’s market the other day from a woman who teaches the Yin yoga class I attend sporadically. She’s got tattoos and piercings and a shaved head but is a terrific yogi and her soup is really good. And paired with the soup (and some shuck-yourself favas on homemade sourdough with Bordier butter, it came into its place on the planet and was exceptional. Its flabbiness disappeared and everything came into focus and all became right with the world. I wouldn’t call it a remarkable wine experience, but it was enjoyable in that context, although on its own it would have been a travesty and waste of whatever it cost me.
Another recent experience went in the other direction. 2013 Romanaux Destezet Sainte EpineSainte Joseph was bloody awful, unless you’re a cat. Mousey enough to call out the health department to shut the joint down. And it’s not like it’s a new release or anything. Lou Amdur says that mouse goes away after a few years. There’s something about the chemistry that makes it dissipate after time in the cellar, but 10 years was enough. Maybe because he was the NKOTB he screwed something up, but the wine never opened up, never came around, and nothing was coaxed out of it even by the time the cheese course came around. And I’ve found a similar situation with more recent vintages of Souhaut’s Les Cessieux St Joseph. As the old saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me eleven+ times, shame on me.” But his La Sizeranne Gamay is beautiful on release and after a couple of years in storage. Maybe Gamay is his gift but Syrah his paycheck? I wanna believe, but yeesh, I coulda whored myself out and bought a bottle of La Mouline instead of a couple of bottles of Sainte Epine. And wtf is up with him making Merlot? Has anyone tasted it? Will it make me forget Petrus? Duckhorn at least?
There’s a place in the world for ideology wines, but maybe throw us a bone every once in awhile to keep us on the hunt. Have any of you experimented with aging some of these newfangled wines and felt like the investment of time and $$ has been worth it?
-Eden (inspired tonight by the RSD "Burning Love" rehearsal LP that may not have been the acme of his talent but it's pretty cool anyway, and available as "Elvis on Tour" on Apple Music if you'd like to be likewise inspired)
At one in my drinking career, all I could afford was Zinfandel, but this was back when 1976 Ridge or Green & Red were $4 a bottle, two-thirds the price of the extravagance of a 1970 Louis Martini Special Selection or Charles Krug Vintage Select Cabernet (and that $2 difference was why I drank Zin rather than Cabernet). Back then I liked the froot and the implications of klassiness that I was drinking wine rather than Hamm’s lager, but I was in the process of developing my palate prior to when the influence of intrusive winemaking efforts or post-harvest hydration or any of the then-extraordinary points-attracting techniques that have since become de rigueur in modern-day California winemaking became the tale leading the dog (it’s became about the story rather than the wine in the early 1980s, dig?)
And you know, a lot of those wines seemed to have turned out real okay and drinkable down the road, with some on roads being longer than others. Mr. Kane was among the first in our immediate circle to realize that there’s gold in them thar (old Napa) hills, despite alcohol levels approaching 13%. They’re restrained and elegant and taste of Napa (or Sonoma) hillsides and valleys, and have turned into somewhat sedate versions of the what they once portended to be. And because it wasn’t Carlo Rossi or Thunderbird, I was cool because I drank California Boutique wines and a 1975 Freemark Abbey Bosché or Charlie Wagner-era Caymus was under $12 and worth it, and they were happy I was buying it so they wouldn’t have to plant nuts or string beans or whatever their parents were growing before they planted grapes.
But as you know, all bets are off nowadays and every dot.com genius and their sister are growing grapes and making “artisanal” wine “made in the vineyard” and creating brands and dynasties and the upshot is that wine isn’t what it once was. Some of it is better than it used to be and some of it is merely a beverage conveying alcohol and status. And as more money comes onto the scene and the boutiques are subsumed into the portfolios of lifestyle brands a vacuum was created with the lack of “honest wine,” resulting in a category to fill that vacuum, ergo: hipster wine.
I don’t think it’s been commodified enough yet for like, SGWS or RNDC to have a “hipster wine” designation on their self-reordering websites (do they even offer those wines in the first place?) but it’s a legit category at both on and off-premise, and one that has followers who will defend to their death their right to fall upon swords that the wine they like is the only true wine, the holy grail of the conscientious imbiber. And the collectors/drinkers of Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Barolo will say “a wine ain’t shit unless it evolves with age in the cellar” but today’s youthful wine drinker will say “live for the moment, carpe diem, kill ‘em all and let god sort ‘em out.”
And I’ve got lockers full of old shit and I really enjoy them; I like older wine (for the most part) but I’m also pretty interested in the new shit, where there are occasionally some dicey winemaking choices being made, but for the right reasons, by winemakers who are cognizant of their market demographic. I visited a hipster winery recently and was shocked, shocked I tell you! to find more than a hint of mouse on the finish of one of their wines. I brought this up to the winemaker, a UC Davis-trained sort of guy who’d worked at some of the most legendary wineries in Napa, and he said “it doesn’t matter my customers drink all this stuff within about 15 minutes of opening it, and besides, it’s not like they’ve been drinking great wine all their lives and know that there’s anything else out there. To them, this is what wine is supposed to taste like.” And y’know, that make sense. Just because it’s not what I’m used to drinking doesn’t mean that it’s bad, does it? Or maybe it is, but I’m fluent in Instagram and Facebook but TikTok doesn’t make sense to me. My bad.
But what happens when you do age the stuff the kids dig? I haven’t amassed much of it, certainly not enough to do any prognosticating on the topic, but I’ve opened a couple of what would be considered hipster wines recently and haven’t exactly been overwhelmed. Should I have even expected anything? Maybe not, but that’s my problem.
Tonight I tried the Domaine Partagé Gilles Berlioz Les Filles 2016 Chignin Bergeron that I’d remembered as brilliant on release voluptuous with plenty of acidity and it reminded me of the best of Bob Lindquist’s single-vineyard hillside Roussannes from his days at Qupé. Well, these days the wine is as flashy and opulent. It reminded me of apricot nectar (only clear) with some minerality. On its own it seemed like it’d seen better days, not bad nor uninteresting, but kind of like someone who buys everything offered by GOOP in an effort to remain relevant. But in my belief that CONTEXT MATTERS! I poured it alongside a vegan lentil soup I’d purchased at the local farmer’s market the other day from a woman who teaches the Yin yoga class I attend sporadically. She’s got tattoos and piercings and a shaved head but is a terrific yogi and her soup is really good. And paired with the soup (and some shuck-yourself favas on homemade sourdough with Bordier butter, it came into its place on the planet and was exceptional. Its flabbiness disappeared and everything came into focus and all became right with the world. I wouldn’t call it a remarkable wine experience, but it was enjoyable in that context, although on its own it would have been a travesty and waste of whatever it cost me.
Another recent experience went in the other direction. 2013 Romanaux Destezet Sainte EpineSainte Joseph was bloody awful, unless you’re a cat. Mousey enough to call out the health department to shut the joint down. And it’s not like it’s a new release or anything. Lou Amdur says that mouse goes away after a few years. There’s something about the chemistry that makes it dissipate after time in the cellar, but 10 years was enough. Maybe because he was the NKOTB he screwed something up, but the wine never opened up, never came around, and nothing was coaxed out of it even by the time the cheese course came around. And I’ve found a similar situation with more recent vintages of Souhaut’s Les Cessieux St Joseph. As the old saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me eleven+ times, shame on me.” But his La Sizeranne Gamay is beautiful on release and after a couple of years in storage. Maybe Gamay is his gift but Syrah his paycheck? I wanna believe, but yeesh, I coulda whored myself out and bought a bottle of La Mouline instead of a couple of bottles of Sainte Epine. And wtf is up with him making Merlot? Has anyone tasted it? Will it make me forget Petrus? Duckhorn at least?
There’s a place in the world for ideology wines, but maybe throw us a bone every once in awhile to keep us on the hunt. Have any of you experimented with aging some of these newfangled wines and felt like the investment of time and $$ has been worth it?
-Eden (inspired tonight by the RSD "Burning Love" rehearsal LP that may not have been the acme of his talent but it's pretty cool anyway, and available as "Elvis on Tour" on Apple Music if you'd like to be likewise inspired)
