New Orin Swift wine born in a dive bar toilet
If you’re looking for ‘advice from John’ you won’t have much luck scrolling through the phone book. You’d be better off heading to the wine list of a five-star restaurant, or paradoxically, nipping into the toilet of a dive bar on Route 66.
Advice From John is the new release from legendary Napa producer Orin Swift, and it’s a Merlot with attitude.
“Disregard of authority for authority’s sake is the bedrock of Orin Swift’s wines,” brand ambassador Amelia Singer told the drinks business at the official launch party for the wine this week. This refusal to submit to the status quo was what prompted Orin Swift’s founder Dave Phinney to produce a Merlot-dominant wine rather than one led by any other variety. Fifteen years after the film Sideways hit screens (2005) and decimated global sales of Merlot, Phinney vowed to help the grape “make a comeback” and give Merlot “a chance to shine”, leading to the creation of this rebellious wine.
Designed specifically for the on-trade with a by-the-glass focus, Advice from John will be distributed by Enotria in the UK with an initial UK run of just 80 cases but according to Enotria “we can get more”.
The strategy is to target fine dining venues and “premium on-trade outlets”, according to Enotria. However, it’s a set of rather less swanky establishments that inspired the wine.
Dive bar bathrooms
The label artwork for Advice from John is the brainchild of Phinney’s long-time assistant Samantha Smith, who some time ago became obsessed with photographing the graffiti she found in dive bar bathrooms. Over the years Smith racked up “thousands of photos” capturing messages scrawled across urinals and cubicle walls running the full gamut from the philosophical to the obscene, enough to populate her own photography book showcasing this hidden world.
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The name John in ‘Advice from John’ in fact refers to an American slang term for the toilet – ‘the john’ – and there is something perversely appealing about pairing fine dining with a wine bottle that reflects some of the sketchiest bars in America.
When Phinney first saw Smith’s dive bar photography he was apparently struck by one image in particular – a red neon note that simply said: “You had me at Hell No.” It was this snap that he decided to make the muse for a future wine. According to Singer, he was struck by the idea of “something you just can’t say no to.”
“I wanted to make a really sessionable wine. A wine that was so delicious that it would fool people into reaching for another glass,” Phinney explained.
Supporting acts
With Phinney being world famous for his luxury red blends, it’s hardly surprising that a few supporting acts made it into his Merlot, with 77% dedicated to the lead grape, while Petit Syrah and Grenache make up the rest. The make-up of the grapes is described as “a tapestry of different Merlot materials”, taken from both cool and warmer vineyard sites, and the wine has spent 14 months in French oak.
After founding Orin Swift in 1998, Phinney sold the brand and tasting room to E. and J. Gallo in 2016 for a rumoured US$300 million, with the winemaker staying on to oversee the creative direction of the wines. Phinney, who had purchased grapes from Gallo for many years before the sale, said of the Orin Swift deal: ‘I’ve known and done business with the Gallo family for over a decade and it makes me very proud that a company that I have such a deep respect for will become the steward of the brand that bears my family’s name.” Orin was his father’s middle name, while Swift was his mother’s maiden name.
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