One thing about Bernie Hadley-Beauregard is you never know what the guy's going to come up with next.
Beauregard, of Blasted Church, Therapy Vineyards (Freudian Sip), Dirty Laundry (and a host of other labels and brands) fame, looks set to repeat the kind of off-the-chart success registered by Mooncurser with his latest, even cheekier endeavour.
Remember Mooncurser? The gaudy bottle design that everyone loved to hate? It's become arguably one of the most recognizable bottles both in B.C. or anywhere, and the wines also deliver. That is the crux of the issue.
BHB's latest effort (through Brandever Marketing) is a project for the Okanagan's Church State wines. It's a deliberately provocative undertaking that pushes the boundaries of taste for various people in different ways. Different strokes for different folks indeed!
In a press release, Church State noted that they asked themselves
what would happen if they lost all their inhibitions and checked preconceived notions about wine and traditional blends at the door. They decided to create what they felt was a wine for all of the senses, a white blend with personality, aroma complexity, intense flavours, and a big mouthfeel.
Well, that's a fairly significant whack of hyperbole on which to deliver. But the Lost Inhibitions white blend that I tasted certainly comes up with the goods.
This is a bit of a classic cocktail blend (of 35.18 per cent Viognier, 19.7 per cent Gewurztraminer, 16.83 per cent Sauvignon Blanc, 16.36 per cent Chardonnay, 7.3 per cent Riesling, 3.05 per cent
Orange Muscat, 1.58 per cent Roussanne).
Now, if you saw that on a wine label, you might be tempted to say to yourself, "What were they thinking?" And move on to the next label. Enter the boundless imagination of Beauregard and his cohorts, who realized the best thing is to say as little as possible about the wine, as long as you can reach your intended audience in a way that most appeals to them.
These labels are nothing if not deliberately edgy, excessively cheeky and above all generationally distinctive. To conservative wine drinkers and stick-in-the-mud cork dorks, the very notion of putting some of these names on a wine label might be just a wee bit too much to swallow even on a good day. Who cares! All you had to do was to tune in to social media (#lostinhibitions) to witness the instant success, wrapped in an exuberant, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter fuelled firestorm of activity, to know that these new labels hit their mark with absolute laser precision. No mention of price, blend or anything. The names alone had some
people running to find them. As for the wines themselves, they actually do stand up to scrutiny.
Lost Inhibitions White 2014 sports aromas of apple and pear, followed by a surprisingly full-bodied palate, with hints of citrus, peach-nectarine from the Viognier and even some rose petal from the Gewurztraminer, all wrapped in juicy acidity (90 points, $18-$20).
Lost Inhibitions Red 2013, an approachable blend (51.7 per cent Merlot, 30.6 per cent Cabernet Franc, 13.6 per cent Malbec, 4.1 per cent Petit Verdot) has black fruit jumping out of the glass before a palate that only just manages to steer clear of the overtly commercial sweet style, but does revel in unabashed sweet black fruit flavours, with mocha tones, easy tannins and good length (89 points).
I also couldn't help but chuckle at the tag line: "At Church State we let our wines speak for themselves, even if they're a bit mouthy."
Tim Pawsey writes about wine for numerous publications and online as the Hired Belly at hiredbelly.com. Contact: [email protected].
