Colin McBryde is not your conventional image of a man with a PhD. His shaved head and full body tattoos are a long way from the conventional lab geek. But when you realize that Some Young Punks, is all about a punk attitude to winemaking, it all starts to make sense. Along with partner Jen Gardner and her family, who own Adelina in the Clare Valley, add Nic Bourke and creative pop art packaging, you have Some Young Punks. Seriously good booze with seriously good attitude!
"We wanted to do something that had been done before, to make exceptional wine with small estate charm. The ethos is simple, self centered, and just a little arrogant - We make charismatic wines that are true to what we think ‘wine’ should be about. If someone doesn’t like the way we do it then they had better put the bottle down because there’s already not enough to go around. It is okay to judge a book by it’s cover; we judged the covers of books to decide on these labels. These labels are as bright and bold as the wines they clothe. Fresh Classics printed in glorious Punknicolor. The wines almost made themselves. The best fruit always does. But even the best fruit won’t jump into a crusher by itself so we help out a little in that respect. This beautiful tradeoff left us plenty of time to talk and drink and then talk some more. And when it was time we bottled it. Presto." - Punks
"The Suspects: In the case of Jen Gardner we have a straight-A student, with a PhD and a long line of important publications led astray by a love of The Wild Wine. A sad case of a good kid mixed up with the wrong type of wine, now she rarely even inoculates her ferments, preferring instead to let them run wild as she now does.
Colin McBryde was always a troublemaker, fleeing wineries in New Zealand and the Americas, he now operates out of Australia’s Clare Valley. He is truly an incorrigible winemaker, understood only by the yeast that helped him nab his PhD from Adelaide University.
Nic Bourke does whatever it takes to make the best wine. Those that stand in his way soon learn that winemaking is serious work except when it isn’t. McLaren Vale plays host to his hijinx but one region is never enough, and no variety is too big to be brought back down to size by a big enough crusher. Approach all three with caution - especially if they are anywhere near a bottle of wine. An opinion is only worth something when strongly held and these people have a helluva grip." - Punks