Here's a candid question no reader had asked before: Could I recommend a couple of "cool" wines. He meant cool as in hip. Or, as young people like to irreverently misspell it on their cellphones, "kewl."
The letter came from someone who knows a lot about wine generally, but he needed help reading the Timberlake zeitgeist. I hope I'm not outing a surprise, but he's planning a barbecue party for a son and a bunch of his 26- to 28-year-old friends. Could I recommend "a red wine and a white wine that might be a little different than the ones that they usually buy but are not too expensive?" he asked. "Something that is cool. There is a test for your wine knowledge."
Indeed. And an entertaining test, too, the kind of honest - as opposed to earnest - question I love. Could wine help span the generation gap between dorky Boomers and the people who know how to program PVRs? It was up to me to supply the bridge.
Ideas rushed to mind, mostly about what not to buy. Let's get the big one out of the way first. No Yellow Tail Shiraz. Yes, it's America's bestselling wine and one of the top sellers in Canada. Yes, the Australian red with the cute kangaroo is the definition of easy drinking, with a nostalgic lunchbox grape-juice flavour. But it's the Coldplay of wine, so popular it's uncool. So uncool it might as well marry Gwyneth Paltrow. The point here is to find something edgier. More Lil Wayne or Kings of Leon.
My correspondent laid down his price limit, $20, which I thought was pretty generous. Instantly my mind turned to tempranillo from Spain. I also thought of high-end malbec from Argentina - not the under-$10 "recession" stuff everybody's guzzling out of penury more than joy. From southern Italy, I considered almost-famous nero d'Avola and negroamaro. And I thought of South Africa, specifically its accessible-yet-interesting sauvignon blancs.
But before I get to more, I want to introduce an incontrovertible panel of experts just so you don't lay all the blame on me for dismissing wines you may love and recommending wines you think are geeky. I put the question to three so-called "millennials," members of the generation that started coming of age after the year 2000 and are now in their 20s and early 30s.
Two are sommeliers: Kye Melchert, 28, beverage manager with Coast Restaurant and O Lounge in Vancouver, and Courtney Henderson, 30, food and beverage manager with Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario, including its popular new restaurant Frank. The third focus-group member is Angela Aiello, 27, who worked in the Niagara wine industry for years and now runs iYellowWineClub.com, a Toronto-based social club, with co-founder Paxton Allewell. The club - it's name a phonetic play on Ms. Aiello's last name - stages wine-themed trips and events geared to a membership mainly in their 20s and 30s.
I'm relieved to say they all agreed about tempranillo.
"Tempranillo from Spain, malbec from Argentina and carmenere from Chile - they're all hot grapes, and that's hot geography right now,' Ms. Aiello said.
Tempranillo, a red grape, makes a medium- to full-bodied wine and almost always comes from Spain. Sometimes you'll see the grape name on labels, but it's often found in blends and is the major constituent in wines simply labelled Rioja, a region of northern Spain. For the record, the grape is pronounced temprah-NEE-yo, which should be easy for someone under 30 because of the last syllable. As in: "Yo, that's some sick juice." Translation: "Hello there, that's a very balanced wine." Reliable producers of affordable tempranillo include Penascal, Osborne (notably the bargain Solaz line) and Bodega Piqueras Castillo de Almansa.
