Under 30s Wine Trade Sips: Alex, 26

What happens when a sound designer trades studios and speakers for vineyards and bottles?

He goes from tuning speakers to tuning his palate!

That’s my professional story. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Two weeks into my new career I was excited, but then an article appeared in my feed: ‘Wine is in danger! Young people aren’t drinking anymore!’ Whoosh… there went all my excitement.

Except the excitement never really went away.

One of my biggest goals is to help people of all ages, but especially younger drinkers, to see that wine is something exciting and approachable – something worth exploring.

There are countless ways of achieving this. One of the easiest ways, I believe, is to simply be a young face in the wine industry.

Curious passion

Weekdays, you can find me at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, California, where I like to think I bring a youthful and curious passion to this industry.

This passion manifests itself in many ways, such as helping a customer find that perfect wine pairing for their dinner, or sharing my love and knowledge on our store’s social media pages.

Customers love to ask: ‘What’s your favourite wine?’ It’s a difficult question.

The easy way out would be to talk about the 1992 Coche-Dury, Corton-Charlemagne I was fortunate enough to try.

Instead, I like to tell them my favourite style of wine. I like my wines full of tension and energy, showcasing terroir with transparent winemaking styles.

Picking just one wine to showcase for this column was extremely difficult but, with some creative thinking, I got there in the end.

I love Beaujolais, I’m a Californian, and I love wines with an exceptional quality-to-price ratio. So how about a $36 Gamay from Sonoma?

My choice in my words

It’s pale ruby in colour. Freshly picked strawberries burst out of the glass along with pomegranates, raspberries, and Bing cherries all bouncing around saying, ‘I’m here!’ It’s quite the energetic bunch.

But as the wine warms and opens up (I personally like all my reds with some chill), freshly ground white pepper, violets, strawberry leaves, oolong tea, and a peek-a-boo of potting soil help build a foundation for these red-fruit notes.

That ripe red fruit rushes across the palate, with the white pepper providing a lift of spice that keeps the wine light on its feet. Pleasant tannins give it some bones.

It’s all driven by electric acidity – that vibrancy just makes your palate beg for another sip! Which means the wine works great either on its own (as a vin de soif) or with food.

What foods? Almost everything! It was steak frites for me. That’s one of the beauties of Gamay and why I love recommending it to customers. Going to a dinner party and don’t know what they’re serving? Get Gamay!

This wine is extremely easygoing, but also full of character. I’d especially recommend it to someone who wants to experience a more restrained kind of California wine.

You can drink it now or through 2038. And for $36, I think it’s a must try.