WHY: With the California market dominated by Zinfandel, it’s nice to share a little familial love with his reclusive twin brother Primitivo from time to time. We received the 2009 Sculpterra Primitivo as a sample from millennial winemaker Paul Frankel and happily share our tasting notes with you today.

The color of the Sculpterra Primitivo looks, as you would expect a cultivar of the same variety as Zinfandel would, rich purple with a slightly garnet rim. From the beginning, it was very striking; the nose possessed notes of rhubarb, cherries, toasted oak, and tobacco. Although a hipster’s first instinct is to snort, er, inhale deeply, we let ourselves enjoy the aromas, before beginning the tasting. The aromas led to a very welcoming mouthfeel, full and almost chewy. Unlike California Zins, where their vigor can create overpowering fruit flavors, the Primitivo maintained complexity and depth expressing wet tea leaves, dark chocolate and a touch of blackberry brandy. There were very round but tart tannins and cigar box flavors on the tongue.

The Wrap: With reduced upfront fruit power, the Sculpterra Primitivo shines with secondary aged flavors. You’d never guess that this old soul was still but a wily 2 year old. This speaks highly of the winemaker, himself but a wily 20-something. We can’t wait to go visit the winery to taste through their full lineup and check out the sculpture garden on premise.

WHY: We might feel a special kinship with this vineyard as the winery’s age puts it square in the middle of Generation Y, just like ourselves. Or, it could be that our prior experiences with various vintages of their Isosceles, Justification & Savant make this winery’s name stand out like a neon SALE sign at Urban Outfitter’s. Whatever the reason, spying this bottle at Lincoln Fine Wines ended an as-yet-unsolved 45 minute wine-purchasing deliberation immediately.

This wine selection became the private Hipster Enology bottle at an engagement party. Just because we didn’t get a chance to volatilize the esters on our first go around with this bottle, doesn’t discredit the wonderful aromas and flavors we detected. Even concealed in a Nalgene, which we prefer to refer to as a carafe, we found scents of young coconut and lemongrass in the nose. Since JUSTIN doesn’t oak this wine at all, it is completely true to the grape, delivering flavors of ripe melon like honeydew & casaba, lots of citrus and freshly cut grass.

The Wrap: You’ll always be surprised by what you find in a hipster’s Nalgene. Our secret companion was perfectly paired with the fresh ceviche and fruit at the party. Everything about this wine makes us Hipster Enologists want to hang out somewhere tropical. (Thus shedding our American Apparel V-Necks and skinny jeans to reveal American Apparel swim wear.) It was a fitting selection for a very special occasion, and produced as consistently in quality as their other more expensive wines.

• WHY:Fess Parker was an actor who played Davy Crockett in Disney’s 1950’s series. Fess (Can we call him, “Fess?”) opened his first resort in Santa Barbara in 1986. In 1987, he purchased 714 acres in the Santa Ynez valley for plotting and planting Fess Parker’s Winery & Vineyard. So, if Fess played Davy apparently we weren’t too far off when we said, “while it smells like the armpits of a Frontier man, it doth7s not taste so.” (Here at Hipster Enology, we use silent numbers.) So what were we getting at here? (This was the first of one of our “4 bottle nights.” There are only 4 of us. Do the math and give us a break.) This wine has a very earthy, musky smell when first opened. This is a hobo-chic, one-with-the-earth sort of stink… If a wine could have BO, Frontier Red has it. However, as it pits out, or rather, opens up, you will find some fruit. Jesse even found a rare tang of unripe blueberries in the nose. But, enough about its body odor, don’t judge this wine until you taste it.
  First, Frontier Red Lot No. 82 is HOT. At 15.WTF% ABV this wine needs to breathe before imbibing. (Not that the nose wouldn’t tempt you to put baby in the corner in the first place.) This is now the third time we’ve mentioned this, because it was that hot. Not like Paris hot, but actually hot. Alcohol for miles. Once it cooled off a bit, Ben described the taste as, “It’s like spice and fruit had a fight, but then had sex at the end. Spice and fruit had make up sex.” This became quite an ironic note, because the discussion attempt to define the lingering heat of the wine and taste of pepper caused a small argument. (Ah yes, Serrano vs. Jalapeño: The Couple’s Argument.) Ultimately, we all settled on Jalapeño because the fruity nature of the beast just couldn’t be ignored. Following this spicy, front fruit forward taste was a simple finish: not flat, not overly sweet, yet not dry with no tannin.
• The Wrap:Buy this wine. This is the 5th release of this wine that Fess has tackled, Lot No. 41 being the first. It’s ready to drink and will be sure to please at any barbecue. That brings us back to that heat. All that spice, fruit, earth and alcohol compliments those rich sweet sauces very well. Since the wine isn’t overly complex or rough with tannins, you aren’t going to flatten the taste of your BBQ meats and potato salads. And, as a screw cap, Frontier Red Lot No. 82 would be great to take camping. It’d be just like taking a little Davy Crockett with you.