I never thought I would live to hear the phrase “about to double their Sylvaner acreage.”
I don’t subcsribe to the Comical. Hey did you catch the article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat 4 years ago on my Step-Son and his winery? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Take your skinny jeans and manufactured lifestyle and get the hell off my Sonoma lawn. ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
So, let me get this straight- if “very wealthy trust fund boys” work really hard at something they love, no matter the outcome/quality, it’s somehow less “authentic”? Is that what you’re implying? Or is it that they’re too “prettified” (not 100% sure what that means) to “live, breathe and deliver wines made with heart and skill”? Like, if they’d grown up with less opportunity they’d magically be able to infuse their wine with heart and skill, and it would somehow be more “authentic”?
Yeah, that makes total sense.
Might as well apply that formula to art, music, and literature as well.
It’s the white privilege thing. Sort of like reverse affirmative action.
Actually thought about reading that article…but then I just went on living my life. Oh well.
But, but, the NorCal lifestyle… ![[snort.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/b/bdc3944606213c4dca6c1169cf0a166c8bc4f8c9.gif "snort.gif"){kind=small}
This has been an interesting discussion, albeit one that went in a direction I did not expect…
When I made the post, what my question was about (at the time) was whether most people nowadays, would rather drink putatively average wine, in a lovely location, with method actors providing access to their “lifestyle”… (which seems phony on its surface, in that there is no way these fine looking models could afford it, normally)…
My business model was the opposite, namely that people would rather have above average wine in a warehouse (albeit in a nice wine town).
After 10+ years at it, one part I certainly misjudged was the level in which people want to know about (& participate in) our “lives”, and we’ve had to come up with a edited/ (sanitized?) versions of that, since the reality is not too glamorous, and if you tell the unvarnished truth people are let down, and have even complained…
We even named the levels of our wine club “Fan”, “Friend”, & “Family”, since it was nicely alliterative, but it also seemed to represent the levels of access that people wanted from us.
When I go taste wines for possible purchase, I’m not that interested in the people serving it, mostly the processes, and history (of the brand), but apparently I’m in the minority.
That being said, I’m really finding the “millennial” wine country style, distilled (by me) like so:
- Make obscure varietals
- Make them using unconventional (I would argue incorrect) methods
- Pick them too early in any event
- No Oak
- Make sure everything, and everyone is camera & publication ready. (Best for Social Media)
I would argue the the first four line items primarily are done for cost saving, and the subsequent marketing is a silk purse/sows ear kind of thing, but the marketing (natural, traditional, non intervention etc etc) makes virtues out of what are primarily economic choices…
It’s really, really challenging to make great Cab/Pinot/Merlot/Chard, year after year, with a ton of intimidating and established competition, and perhaps if I was the scion of an existing farming family, I might also choose that path…
Just my .02 but at some level I think it’s taking an easier way out, YMMV…
Eric,
I am glad to find someone even more cynical than yours truly on these pages. I haven t figured out why picking early is financially or oenologically advantageous, but it does seem that a little astringency does not frighten millennials.
People just like to have a good time and that s what Scribe seems to promise. Winery tasting rooms that offer fun as an option have a greater possibility of success. Look at Raymond!
I did not not know that Jean Giraudoux said the famous line about faking sincerity. I thought it was Jack Paar.
I think the fawning writeup style of the article was more offensive to WB’ers than what this winery is actually doing.
Having been part of both that wine experience loving millennial group of wine lovers as well as a WB’er whose actual wine knowledge grew considerably over my years of membership here I can vouch for the fact that the wine experience is just as essential and valuable as wine knowledge. Wineries are struggling to develop new young idealistic customers who will become lifelong old cynical WB posters who still buy their wine. If it gets them through the winery doors, it’s all good.
Some of those millenials will eventually want to expand their knowledge and discover wines such as Kutch or Chateau Montelena (for example) and become one of “us”. That doesn’t mean their initial experiences at a winery like Scribe was worthless because one day they found themselves getting into “real” wine. It was what got them the door and into our world and that’s all that matters. Same as if they had tried quality wine in a warehouse setting. For the record, I have happily done exactly both of these types of experiences and am happy to have experienced both in my wine journey.
Well, it’s sure easier to care for a early picked highly acidic, low ph wine than a later picked high ph low acid wine… I guess you save on sulfur that way too.
I am of the opinion of that early picking does nothing good for the flavor, but certainly adds hipster cred nowadays, but I think that’s a temporary phenomenon.
I’ve never been to scribe so have zero to add to this thread…but just wanted to say that was an awesome post man. We’ve all got to start somewhere. Didn’t expect that drinking Rombauer chardonnay with my college girlfriend would lead me on the path to an obsessive ‘hobby’ where I spend way more time than I’d like to admit waxing poetic about grapejuice here on WB with you crazy bastards…but here we are!
And Scribe’s wines HAVE to be better than Rombauer. So they have that going for them. Which is nice.
I doubt this could be more timely: Family Guy does Millennial… Hilarious!
Plot:
To help promote the brewery to millennials, a millennial hipster is hired to teach the staff. Peter catches on quickly and adopts the millennial lifestyle after walking through a cloud of vape smoke, but when the expert is killed by a bus while texting on a hoverboard, the brewery makes Peter in charge of their program. He enlists the guys to help him create a video program for social media, which after a few misfires, soon attracts the attention of a high-powered Silicon Valley executive.
But on a tour of the building where the entire internet is housed, Peter mistakes a server room for a restroom and shorts out the entire internet, leaving the world in chaos. After making their way back home, Peter tries to substitute as the entire internet, complete with pop-up ads, looping videos and viruses. When Meg and Chris both note that they had previous luck in recovering their cell phones with rice, they try it with the server and it works. Dining out at a fancy restaurant, all of the patrons and staff are so engrossed in their smartphones that they fail to notice the restaurant going up in flames around them, as Rod Serling closes out the episode comparing the events around the diners to the FOX Tuesday night lineup.
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