I’m standing in my pantry, looking at a shelf of wine bottles, surveying each of the labels as if I’m picking out a work of art.
“Well, do you like red?” I ask my friend.
“Sure, I mean I don’t know anything about wine. I’ll drink anything! You probably know more than me,” she quickly replies, almost as a defense to stop asking any more questions about her wine preferences.
I grab one that is peeking out from the group on the right side, examine the label and shrug. Guess this will do.
Whenever I uncork a bottle of vino with friends, they always exclaim that they know nothing about wine but love drinking it, almost as if they are apologizing for taking a glass after it has been poured.
Why is wine so scary to us millenials? Is it because we don’t understand why we need to pair our Italian red with wild boar, or that we can’t taste the oak as we gulp down glass number three?
Well, that just won’t stand for 31-year old Brad Ball, a sommelier that teamed up with three friends Dale Slear, Luke Correale and Logan Lee to revolutionize the wine industry for millennials.
And so, Wine Awesomeness was born.
“The wine world is held hostage by magazines read by geriatrics that deem specific wines successful by tagging them with an arbitrary score,” reads the Wine Awesomeness manifesto. “This pretentious bull shit’s time has come and gone. Good wine is for the masses.”
A wine club for vino lovers in their 20s and 30s, Wine Awesomeness (WA) subscribers opt to receive three or six bottles of wine monthly or quarterly –red, white, or mixed. The WA team then delivers hand-selected bottles to their home or office, along with snarky tasting notes, recipes, and music and occasion suggestions.
This month’s 2011 Barberani ‘Polago’ Sangiovese/Montepulciano is recommended for a “Backyard BBQ after a beach day” with “Cheddar Burgers with Tarragon Russian Dressing and Baked Onion Rings.” Music of choice according to WA? “Alabama Shakes’ Hold On.”
Their cheeky copy bleeds into everything they do, from their wine descriptions and Badassery blog, to their social media posts and even their #WineAllTheTime videos.
For $45 a month you can receive up to four wines, or you can shop directly from the website’s wine list. Recently, the friends announced a collaboration with fashion photographer Ben Watts, brother of Naomi Watts, to create WattsUp Rosé. Because after all, “real men drink rosé.”
“Make no mistake about it,” reads their manifesto. “Wine Awesomeness is a rebellion.”