They blame the booze, but whatever they’ve done, Some Young Punks (SYP) have managed tick all the right boxes when it comes to branding their quality product. We talk to 1/3 of SYP (one of the three punks), Col McBryde, Australia’s ‘Young Gun Winemaker of the Year’, to get under the skin of the three chancers behind Australia’s most sought-after, must-have wines.

1. We’ve never seen labels quite like it before. What about the art style? It’s very 1930′s or something. Who came up with the idea?

The Pulp series of wines (ie. Passion/Quickie!) are actual Pulp Fiction novel covers from the 30′s through 50′s. We’ve used the original form and style (of the novel) and tried to ameliorate them as so they fit the bill as a wine label (that is contain all the obligatory stuff).

We started with Pulp because Nic has a great collection of Pulp novels, these images were exceptionally familiar to the three of us as they adorned the walls of Nic’s place and we would also thumb through them as we hung out studying and knocking back beers. So along with the ephemeral connection we also wanted something that would stand out on the shelf.

The TNT (Squids Fist) and Live and Rare series are custom illustrations, which is the direction we’re taking these days for our packaging. We form a short brief or story and fire it through to an artist to interpret our ramblings/musings. We’ve been exceptionally fortunate that we’ve had the opportunity to work with illustrators/artists like Asaf and Tomer Hanuka and Raul Allen, it’s these guys that have stylised our ideas.

2. Love the website too. Can you explain the theme to our readers?

It’s the notebook of Private Investigator Welkin Lire, a collection of all his sightings and musings on us ‘Punks’ based on a speight of wine bottle suicides, that he thinks we’ve been responsible for – which is very tongue in cheek.

3. So where did it all kick off for you guys? Did you all meet through wine school?

Nic and I studied Oenology together, we first met Jen one year into our degree, she was completing her PhD in the realm of wine yeast metabolism. We’ve all been great friends for a long time. We were kicking back a number of years ago on a sunny Sunday afternoon sinking a few beers, Jen and I had a bit of Cabernet that didn’t suit our brand, so after shooting the breeze about what Nic might have available we decided that we should release a little project for ourselves. Sometime later we released our first wine, 2005 Passion has Red Lips, which we made a whopping fifty cases of.

4. Packaging is second to none (goes without say) but tell us a little about what’s inside the bottle?

Squids Fist is a 70% Sangiovese (Sangio), 30% Shiraz blend. The Sangio is from Barossa, Kalimna to be exact, up by Penfolds block 42, a crazy little site, red sands with junks of ironstone strewn throughout. The Shiraz is from Willunga in McLaren Vale, on Biscay soils. The Sangio came from 13-years-young vines, with skin contact for 30 days, and the Shiraz comes from 30-year-old vines with 15 days skin contact. All in all, spending around 10 months in oak before blending and bottling, so it’s a bit of a monster, tamed to make for something a little more refined.

Passion‘s (has Red Lips) Cabernet (54%) rocks in from from Clare Valley, the northern end, on the elevated slopes about 5km east of the town, and the Shiraz is from McLaren Vale (again, down on by Willunga). Both vineyards are VSP trained with traditional viticultural practices. The oak was neutral, or as some would prefer seasoned, for a little more restraint. All parcels were kept separate until barrel/tank selection for blending and bottling.

5) Finally, you’re very much quality focussed, with a style of your own, but if you could no longer make wine in Australia, where would you go and why?

The options are limitless, however, personally I’d be torn between Piemonte and Burgundy primarily because of an overwhelming fondness for the wines of these regions.

Thanks to Col McBryde of Some Young Punks. Picture sourced from stuff.co.nz.